Library / English Dictionary

YEARN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Have affection for; feel tenderness for

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "yearn" is one way to...):

care for; cherish; hold dear; treasure (be fond of; be attached to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Have a desire for something or someone who is not present

Example:

I am pining for my lover

Synonyms:

ache; languish; pine; yearn; yen

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "yearn" is one way to...):

hanker; long; yearn (desire strongly or persistently)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "yearn"):

die (languish as with love or desire)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

yearner (a person with a strong desire for something)

yearning (prolonged unfulfilled desire or need)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Desire strongly or persistently

Synonyms:

hanker; long; yearn

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "yearn" is one way to...):

desire; want (feel or have a desire for; want strongly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "yearn"):

ache; languish; pine; yearn; yen (have a desire for something or someone who is not present)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

They yearn to move

Derivation:

yearner (a person with a strong desire for something)

yearning (prolonged unfulfilled desire or need)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Already our hearts yearn and our spirits fly towards the great mother city which holds so much that is dear to us.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“With what intense desire she wants her home,” was continually on her tongue, as the truest description of a yearning which she could not suppose any schoolboy's bosom to feel more keenly.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Everybody was out of town, and I yearned for the glades of the New Forest or the shingle of Southsea.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The more I saw of them, the greater became my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures; to see their sweet looks directed towards me with affection was the utmost limit of my ambition.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I had left this woman in bitterness and hate, and I came back to her now with no other emotion than a sort of ruth for her great sufferings, and a strong yearning to forget and forgive all injuries—to be reconciled and clasp hands in amity.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Every land hath indeed its ways and manners; but I promise you, Edward, that when you are my guest in Toledo or Madrid you shall not yearn in vain for any commoner's daughter on whom you may deign to cast your eye.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sensibility, as far as concerned the yearning for food, had been exhausted.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

"You too, my dearest," she said, with infinite yearning of pity in her voice and eyes.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But there was nothing gross or earthly about this yearning.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Soon, you will yearn for a break in routine, and you’ll want to take a drive to new surroundings.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)