See Also: Yearn(medicine)
yearn(1)(dictionary)
yearn(2)(dictionary)
yearn(dictionary)

yearn(2) (iou)



yearn verb1.

I.
a. verb intrans. Have a deep or passionate longing. Usu. foll. by for, after, to do. OE.
D. du Maurier An agony of loneliness made me..yearn for company. B. Spock The boy yearns to be like his idealized father. J. A. Michener Urbaal lay..dreaming of the slave girl whom he yearned for with such passion. A. T. Ellis Betty was beginning to pine and to yearn after Beuno.
b. verb trans. Have a deep longing for. OE-M16.
verb trans. Ask for, request. OE-ME.
verb intrans. Of a hound: give tongue. E16-L17.
a. verb intrans. Of sound: express or suggest strong desire or emotion. E19.
Keats The music, yearning like a God in pain.
b. verb trans. Utter in an emotional voice. M19.
W. C. Russell The jibs yearning from their sheets taut as fiddle-strings.
c. verb trans. Have an appearance as of longing; esp. strain forward. L19.
II.
a. verb trans. Have compassion on, pity. rare. Only in E16.
O. W. Holmes Just as my heart yearns over the unloved, just so it sorrows for the ungifted.
b. verb intrans. Be filled with compassion or tender feelings; be deeply moved. Usu. foll. by at, to, towards. M16.
verb trans. Cause to mourn; move to compassion. L16-M17.
Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor She laments, sir, for it, that it would yearn your heart to see it.
yearner noun E20.