yearning
Americannoun
-
deep longing, especially when accompanied by tenderness or sadness.
a widower's yearning for his wife.
-
an instance of such longing.
noun
Related Words
See desire.
Other Word Forms
- unyearning adjective
- yearningly adverb
Etymology
Origin of yearning
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English gierninge; equivalent to yearn + -ing 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But the sensation they were feeling—that chafing, persistent yearning for something to soothe their weary soul—was often confused with dehydration.
From Literature
One of the novel’s characters insists that all of us share “only one important story: of youth, and loss, and yearning for redemption. . . . Just the details are different.”
NBC merely needed to wait until our yearning for respite and distraction became so acute as to make us thirsty for harmony.
From Salon
In retrospect, taken collectively, much of McCarthy’s work as an actor, filmmaker and journalist hinges on the friendship motif — that primordial ache to belong, that yearning to be seen.
From Los Angeles Times
“More than ever, Season 5 is going to be about yearning,” Brownell said, adding that it “feels groundbreaking” to have a “Bridgerton” season focused on a queer romance.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
