yearning
deep longing, especially when accompanied by tenderness or sadness: a widower's yearning for his wife.
an instance of such longing.
Origin of yearning
1synonym study For yearning
Other words from yearning
- yearn·ing·ly, adverb
- un·yearn·ing, adjective
Words Nearby yearning
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use yearning in a sentence
This may or may not show a national yearning to complain as a means of passing the time, and it hints that the complaining might continue even through this coronavirus-wrecked year when maybe it shouldn’t.
In this unhinged year, the CFP selection committee faces an even more indecipherable task | Chuck Culpepper | November 23, 2020 | Washington PostEvery image is full of the deepest yearnings for freedom and independence.
If you’re thinking of a drastic lifestyle change, ‘Off Grid Life’ will feed your fantasy (or kill it) | Tim Smith | October 30, 2020 | Washington PostIt’s a yearning that’s become familiar during this pandemic, for those things I know I can’t have.
Until I Can Go Back to My Favorite Restaurant, This Jerk Paste Is the Next Best Thing | Elazar Sontag | September 25, 2020 | EaterEventually, he says, “there will be a yearning to meet new people once again, and when it’s safe to do so, we’ll be there at the ready.”
Airbnb CEO: The pandemic will force us to see more of the world, not less | Verne Kopytoff | September 7, 2020 | FortuneYet they’re also about many different types of isolation and the human yearning to not be alone.
Two new books explore Mars — and what it means to be human | Lisa Grossman | July 15, 2020 | Science News
Yet, many do not find in this shared, human yearning a reason to regard immigrants as “like us” rather than “not like us.”
He was constantly yearning to be a politician and an editor at the same time.
Yet the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free did not always find what they expected in America.
‘The Harness Maker’s Dream:’ The Unlikely Ranch King of Texas | Nick Kotz | September 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTEach was in a day-by-day survival mode—each in his own way yearning for self-worth.
Filming a Beautiful Town in Decay: ‘Rich Hill’ and the Elusive American Dream | Tracy Droz Tragos | July 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST“If You Had My Love” was silky-smooth with just the right amount of anguished yearning.
Jennifer Lopez’s ‘A.K.A.’ Is Terrible. What Happened to Her Music? | Kevin Fallon | June 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBut also it was an inarticulate yearning to find that state of safety where he and she dwelt secure from separation—in the 'sea.'
The Wave | Algernon BlackwoodShe could have swooned, so intoxicant was her wonder and her solemn joy and her yearning after righteousness in love.
Hilda Lessways | Arnold BennettIt was the starving sense of loneliness, the aching sense of loss, the yearning and the vain desire that made it seem so long.
The Wave | Algernon BlackwoodThere were other causes entering into this unrest besides his yearning desire to win Ramona for his wife.
Ramona | Helen Hunt JacksonHe longed for death with a full and yearning desire, and he could kiss the hand that would be merciful and give the fatal blow.
British Dictionary definitions for yearning
/ (ˈjɜːnɪŋ) /
an intense or overpowering longing, desire, or need; craving
Derived forms of yearning
- yearningly, adverb
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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