longing

Plurallongings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   An earnest, deep desire that is more melancholic than passionate, colored by quiet sadness rather than fiery wanting.

   A lifelong longing for the village of her childhood stayed with her into old age.

   His letters home were full of longing for a future the war had quietly stolen.

   Similaryearning, pining, wistfulness, hankering, nostalgia

   Oppositeindifference

   Note

   The noun has its own Old English ancestor, longung, and is not simply the verb's participle put to new use. The two -ing endings were once different suffixes. It counts as easily as it generalizes: Melville's Moby-Dick (1851) pairs "all natural lovings and longings," while Lord Dunsany's chosen travelers "feel suddenly a great longing at heart." Great, deep and lifelong sit naturally before it, and for introduces what is longed for.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of long.

   He spent the whole winter longing for warmer days and open windows.

   Crowds gathered at the dock, longing for a first glimpse of the returning ship.

   Note

   One -ing form serves two quite different senses of the verb. In the desire sense the verb is intransitive and reaches its object through for (longing for warmer days). In the trader's sense it is transitive and takes its object directly (longing the yen). The form also settles into an adjective that compares with more and most, as in a more longing look, and it stays distinct from the noun for melancholic desire.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   Taking a long position: buying a security or other financial instrument in anticipation that its value will increase.

   The fund spent the quarter longing emerging-market equities while shorting U.S. tech.

   After the rate cut, longing the yen became one of the most crowded trades on the desk.

   Similarbuying

   Oppositeshorting

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