sigh

Pluralsighs

Formssighs, sighing, sighed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A deep, drawn-out breath taken in and released audibly, often expressing tiredness, frustration, grief, or relief.

   A heavy sigh escaped her as she read the bad news.

   He answered every question with a weary sigh.

   Similarexhalation, breath, groan, moan

   Note

   The noun was made from the verb, not the other way round. Middle English sighe came from sighen, itself back-formed as described under the breathing verb. A sigh is something one draws, as in Eleanor H. Porter's Pollyanna (1913): "a long quivering sigh." Adjectives of length and weight, such as long, heavy and weary, show what kind of breath it was.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To take in a large breath and let it out audibly, especially as an involuntary expression of fatigue, grief, or frustration.

   She sighed deeply before agreeing to take on the extra shift.

   The students sigh whenever another pop quiz is announced.

   Similarexhale, groan

   Note

   The verb the whole family grows from has an accidental history. Middle English sighen was back-formed from sighte, the past tense of siken. That verb goes back to Old English sīcan, and perhaps to a root meaning "to pour out," which suits a breath let go. Its old synonym sithe is now obsolete. With names the cause (sighed with relief), and over names what is regretted.

3. 3
   interjection

   Used in casual writing to express fatigue, frustration, grief, or disappointment, standing in for the sound itself.

   Sigh. I really thought we'd win this time.

   The flight's been delayed for the third time. Sigh.

   Similarugh

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To make a soft, drawn-out sound resembling that of sighing, as the wind or a passing breeze does.

   The breeze sighed among the reeds at the water's edge.

   Old houses sigh as the wind moves through their gaps.

   Similarwhisper, murmur, moan, rustle

   Note

   Here a human sound is lent to things that do not breathe, such as sails, wind and reeds. Coleridge's sails "did sigh like sedge," and Tennyson's winter winds are "wearily sighing," so the verb keeps some of the weariness of the human sigh as well as its sound. It takes no object and suits wind and whatever wind moves. An older synonym, sithe, is now obsolete.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To breathe out one's breath in the form of sighs.

   He sighed a deep breath and leaned back in his chair.

   Singers learn to sigh their breath out evenly across a long phrase.

   Similarexhale, breathe

   Oppositeinhale

   Note

   The breath itself becomes the object, which allows the cognate pattern sigh a sigh: "She sighed a sigh that was nearly a groan." The object usually earns its place with a modifier, as in Shakespeare's Coriolanus: "Never man sighed truer breath." In "sigh a note and sing a note" the object stretches toward sound, close to uttering words with sighs.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To express something by sighing, or to utter it with sighs.

   She sighed her weariness as she sank into the armchair.

   The old man would sigh his regrets every evening by the fire.

   Similarvoice, express, breathe, murmur, utter

   Note

   Here the verb carries speech or feeling out on the breath. A familiar modern home for it is the dialogue tag: "I guess I have no choice," she sighed. Older writing pairs it with words of direction. Shakespeare's Coriolanus has people who "sighed forth proverbs," and John Hoole's 1763 translation of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered has a swain who "sighs back her grief." As a speech tag it marks a weary or resigned tone.

7. 7
   nounfigurativelycountable

   An audible or written expression that gives voice to grief; a lament.

   The whole album feels like a sigh for a vanished world.

   His memoir is one long sigh over chances he never took.

   Similarlament, elegy, lamentation

8. 8
   verbintransitive

   To grieve or lament; to feel and express sorrow.

   She sighed for the years that had slipped away unnoticed.

   Exiles sigh for homelands they may never see again.

   Similargrieve, mourn, lament, sorrow, moan

   Oppositerejoice

   Note

   Grief here need not make a sound. In the King James Bible of 1611, "He sighed deeply in his spirit" describes an inward sorrow rather than a breath. Its kinship with yearn shows when it takes for and names what is missed: lost years, a distant homeland. Unlike the audible breath, this sense names the feeling, not the noise.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To mourn or lament over someone or something, expressing grief through sighs.

   She sighed the husband she had buried a decade before.

   Each generation seems to sigh the world its parents lost.

   Similarmourn, grieve, lament, bewail, bemoan

   Note

   This transitive use drops the preposition. Where everyday English says someone sighed over a loss, this sense makes the loss a direct object. Matthew Prior in 1695 foresees men unborn who "sigh her fate," and John Buchan's The Outgoing of the Tide (1902) leaves poor Ailie "to sigh her love." Lament takes the same direct object and makes a useful substitute.

10. 10
    noundialectalCockneycountable

    Someone who is bored or lacking in enthusiasm.

    Quit being a sigh and come dance with the rest of us.

    He's turned into a real sigh ever since the holidays ended.

    Similardrag, bore, killjoy, misery

    Note

    Cockney slang turns the noun from a breath into a person. Outside the speakers who use it, listeners will hear "a sigh" as the ordinary exhalation, so it works best among people who already know it. Grammatically it behaves like any noun for a type of person and takes an article: a real sigh, being a sigh.

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