yearn
to have an earnest or strong desire; long: to yearn for a quiet vacation.
to feel tenderness; be moved or attracted: They yearned over their delicate child.
Origin of yearn
1synonym study For yearn
Other words from yearn
- yearner, noun
- un·yearned, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use yearn in a sentence
No longer concerned with civilian casualties, he said he yearned to bomb the countryside until it became “a moonscape.”
Neil Sheehan, N.Y. Times reporter who obtained Pentagon Papers and chronicled ‘Bright Shining Lie’ of Vietnam, dies at 84 | Harrison Smith | January 7, 2021 | Washington PostIt was a recognition that the tumultuous times are forcing a reckoning, and leaving many students yearning to have an impact.
Most popular course ever at Georgetown Law? How to fight for justice. | Susan Svrluga | November 6, 2020 | Washington PostThe final dish hit the spot exactly the way I needed it to, providing all the nourishing comfort I have been yearning for without demanding much effort at all.
This one-pot riff on stuffed cabbage has all the flavors of the classic — in half the time | Ellie Krieger | November 5, 2020 | Washington PostThe Middle East yearns for change, and for Bahrain, the time is now.
Why now was the right time for Bahrain to normalize relations with Israel | jakemeth | October 30, 2020 | FortuneIn the biopic’s depiction, Devi seems to yearn for such an opportunity.
A documentary and a Bollywood film highlight two disparate paths in mathematics | Emily Conover | October 15, 2020 | Science News
Growing up as a teen in the 1960s, she had yearned to wear the same clothes her girlfriends wore.
Mrs. Clinton gave them just the sizzle they yearned for in a recent interview in The Atlantic.
Here's How to Dig Out of This 'Stupid Sh*t' U.S. Foreign Policy | Leslie H. Gelb | August 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHe more likely yearned to be a hero like the men in the movie posters.
Hollywood, Shootings, and ‘2 Guns’: When Is Stylized Violence Obscene? | Michael Daly | July 30, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTSutay had been traveling across Central America and for some reason yearned to see this isolated world.
She yearned to do something that would affect the poorest people—the people on the ground who get lost in the shuffle.
Luci: A Revolutionary Solar-Powered Lantern That Shines a Light on Poverty | Janine di Giovanni | May 26, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTDuring my two years here I yearned for God in my boyish way as perhaps I have never yearned for anything since.
Three More John Silence Stories | Algernon BlackwoodMy heart yearned for that land, but I had to turn from the contemplation of its distant joys to the cold, gloomy reality below me.
The Soldier of the Valley | Nelson LloydPage 229 Chapter X a comma was inserted in the phrase 'he would secure the competence he had yearned for, for so many years'.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume II (of 3) | Charles James WillsShe yearned and pined to see him once more; but she had reasoned herself down into something like patience.
Ruth | Elizabeth Cleghorn GaskellI went direct to the house of the Moola, for my thoughts were ever with my daughter, and my soul yearned to know her fate.
Confessions of a Thug | Philip Meadows Taylor
British Dictionary definitions for yearn
/ (jɜːn) /
(usually foll by for or after or an infinitive) to have an intense desire or longing (for); pine (for)
to feel tenderness or affection
Origin of yearn
1Derived forms of yearn
- yearner, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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