yearn
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /jɜːn/
enpr: yûrn
ipa: /jɝn/
homophone: yern
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n
Forms: form: yearns
form: yearning
form: yearned
form: yearned
form: yearnt
form: yearnt
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: yearn
form: yearn
form: yearned
form: yearnt
form: yearn
form: yearnest
form: yearned
form: yearnt
form: yearnedst
form: yearns
form: yearneth
form: yearned
form: yearnt
form: yearn
form: yearned
form: yearnt
form: yearn
form: yearned
form: yearnt
form: yearn
form: -
form: yearning
form: yearned
form: yearnt
Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English yernen, yern (“to express or feel desire; to desire, long or wish for; to lust after; to ask or demand for”) [and other forms], from Old English ġeornan (“to desire, yearn; to beg”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *girnijan (“to be eager for, desire”), from Proto-Germanic *girnijaną (“to desire, want”), from *gernaz (“eager, willing”) (from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to yearn for”)) + *-janą (suffix forming factitive verbs from adjectives).
The noun is derived from the verb.
Senses: examples: text: All I yearn for is a simple life.
text: I muſt do that my heart-ſtrings yern to do: but my word's paſt.
ref: c. 1613 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Tragedie of Bonduca”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act II, scene iv, page 56, column 2:
text: You are now before my eyes, my eyes that are ready to flow with tenderness, but cannot give relief to my gushing heart, that dictates what I am now saying, and yearns to tell you all its achings.
ref: 1711 August 24 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “MONDAY, August 13, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 142; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 243:
text: By morning's cheerful glow, but oftener still by evening's gentle light, the child, with a respect for the short and happy intercourse of these two sisters which forbade her to approach and say a thankful word, although she yearned to do so, followed them at a distance in their walks and rambles, […]
ref: 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Thirty-second”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC, page 274:
text: What his soul yearned after was control of his father's newly purchased sailing-ship.
ref: 1896 November – 1897 May, Rudyard Kipling, chapter X, in “Captains Courageous”, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, published 1897, →OCLC, page 298:
text: And Jim supported his twitching body by holding on to the sink, the while he yearned toward the yellowish concoction that stood for life.
ref: 1911 January, Jack London, “Just Meat”, in When God Laughs and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 125:
text: But all that night his body yearned for Alec's, despite him. He called it lustful, a word easily uttered, and opposed it to his work, his family, his friends, his position in society. […] But his body would not be convinced.
ref: 1913–1960 (writing and revisions), E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter 40, in Maurice, London: Penguin Books, published 1971 (1987 printing), →ISBN, page 181:
text: Anne, please tell me over again that you like me a little bit. I yearn to hear it.
ref: 1915, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “Letters from Home”, in Anne of the Island, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, →OCLC, page 50:
synonyms: pant
salivate
glosses: To have a strong desire for something or to do something; to long for or to do something.
examples: text: If I don’t go now, thought Charlotte, I shall have lost a chance which I shall eternally regret and yearn after.
ref: 1971, Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, published February 1972, →ISBN, page 420:
text: Having shaken the dust of the ugly new South Africa from his feet, is he yearning for the South Africa of the old days, when Eden was still possible?
ref: 2002, J[ohn] M[axwell] Coetzee, chapter 17, in Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II, 1st American edition, London: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 137:
synonyms: pant
salivate
glosses: To have a strong desire for something or to do something; to long for or to do something.
To long for something in the past with melancholy or nostalgia.
examples: text: The music, yearning like a God in pain, / She scarcely heard: […]
ref: 1819, John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza VII, page 86:
glosses: Of music, words, etc.: to express strong desire or longing.
examples: text: And Joſeph made haſte: for his bowels did yerne upon his brother: and he ſought where to weepe, and hee entred into his chamber, & wept there.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 43:30, column 1:
text: I have left your mother in the next room. Her heart yearns towards you.
ref: 1711 August 1 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, July 21, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 123; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 158:
text: Oh, it was a pretty sight to see this modest young creature, little more than a child herself, anticipating maternity, but blushing every now and then, and looking askant at her lord and master. How his very bowels yearned over her!
ref: 1873, Charles Reade, chapter XII, in A Simpleton: A Story of the Day […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 99–100:
text: […] Mr. Ratcliffe’s heart yearned toward the charming girl quite with the sensations of a father, or even of an elder brother.
ref: 1880, [Henry Brooks Adams], chapter III, in Democracy: An American Novel (Leisure-hour Series; no. 112), New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 52:
text: But supper had cheered Tant' Sannie, who found it impossible longer to maintain that decorous silence, and whose heart yearned over the youth.
ref: 1883 June, Ralph Iron [pseudonym; Olive Schreiner], “Tant’ Sannie Holds an Upsitting, and Gregory Writes a Letter”, in The Story of an African Farm, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: H. M. Caldwell Company, →OCLC, part II, page 248:
glosses: To have strong feelings of affection, love, sympathy, etc., toward someone.
examples: text: My father’s and my uncle Toby’s hearts yearn’d with ſympathy for the poor fellow’s diſtreſs,—[…]
ref: 1759, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XVII, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, 2nd (1st London) edition, volume II, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 144:
glosses: To be distressed or pained; to grieve; to mourn.
glosses: Often followed by out: to perform (music) which conveys or say (words) which express strong desire or longing.
synonyms: word: earn
glosses: To have a strong desire or longing (for something or to do something).
examples: text: Well, ſhe laments Sir for it, that it would yern your heart to see it: […]
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 52, column 2:
text: It yernes me not, if men my Garments weare; / Nor care I who doth feed vpon my coſt: / Such outward things dwell not in my deſires. / But if it be a ſinne to couet Honor, / I am the moſt offending Soule aliue.
ref: 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 86, column 2:
text: When the badger finds that the terriers yearn him in his burrow, he will stop the hole between him and the terriers; […]
ref: 1833, [William Hamilton Maxwell], “Badger-hunting”, in The Field Book: Or, Sports and Pastimes of the United Kingdom; […], London: Effingham Wilson, →OCLC, page 31, column 2:
text: Wants to sneeze and cannot do it! / Now it yearns me, thrills me, stings me, / Now with rapturous torment wrings me, / Now says “Sneeze, you fool; get through it.”
ref: 1834 June 25, Leigh Hunt, “A Pinch of Snuff (Concluded.)”, in Leigh Hunt’s London Journal, volume I, number 13, London: Charles Knight, […]; and Henry Hooper, […], →OCLC, page 98, column 1:
synonyms: word: earn
glosses: To cause (someone) to have strong feelings of affection, love, sympathy, etc.; also, to grieve or pain (someone).
Synonyms: sigh
Derived terms: my people yearn for freedom
yearner
yearnful
yearning
yearnly
yearnsome
yearny