sighs

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of sigh.

   The room was full of weary sighs as the meeting dragged on.

   Between long pauses, her sighs said more than her words ever could.

   Note

   A plural that keeps every meaning of the singular, including the figurative one: sighs can be laments as well as breaths, as in the sighs of the grieving. In Cockney slang a sigh is also a bored person, so the plural can name people too. The same spelling serves the present-tense verb, and a determiner tells them apart: her sighs is the noun, she sighs is the verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of sigh.

   Whenever the topic of his old job comes up, he sighs and changes the subject.

   The teacher sighs as another late assignment lands on her desk.

   Note

   Here the form keeps all the verb's constructions. Most often it stands alone (he sighs and looks away). It can also take an object: someone sighs out a breath, or sighs a reply, saying the words on a sigh. In the sense of mourning it can take its grief as the object. And it reaches past people: wind or trees sigh when they make a sound like sighing.

   "Fine," she sighs, and hands over the keys.

   All night the wind sighs through the pines.

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