wants

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of want.

   My brother wants a new bicycle for his birthday.

   Whoever wants the last slice should speak up now.

   Note

   The -s form carries every meaning of the verb, including two colloquial ones that are easy to miss. Followed by a verbal noun, it means "needs": the fence wants painting. Followed by to, it can mean "had better": he wants to be careful. Neither expresses a wish. It is spelled the same as the plural noun, and the grammar tells them apart: someone wants something, but a family has wants.

   The lawn wants mowing before the weekend.

   He wants to watch his step on that ice.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of want.

   The survey asked families to list their most pressing wants.

   She set aside her own wants to care for the children.

   Note

   The plural follows the countable meanings of the noun: desires, lacks, and things whose loss is felt, as in a list of daily wants. Poverty, the mass meaning, takes no plural, so a household is said to live in want, not in wants. Dialect speech keeps a stranger noun too, in which wants are moles. Keep it distinct from the verb in "she wants".

Showing meanings only. Show all 2