yearn
SayYURN/jɝn/UK/jɜːn/
Formsyearns, yearning, yearned
Formsyearns, yearning, yearned
- 1
- 2Of music, words, or a singer: to sound full of strong longing or desire.
The violins yearn softly at the start of the song.
Her voice seems to yearn in the last line of the song.
Similarache
Note
- 3To feel strong love or care for someone, or to feel sorry for them.
I have left your mother in the next room. Her heart yearns towards you.
1711, [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, July 21, 1711”Here, yearns means feels strong love toward someone.But supper had cheered Tant' Sannie, who found it impossible longer to maintain that decorous silence, and whose heart yearned over the youth.
1883, Ralph Iron [pseudonym; Olive Schreiner], “Tant’ Sannie Holds an Upsitting, and Gregory Writes a Letter”Note
Less common meanings
- 4To feel deep sadness or pain, especially over a loss.
Note
- 5To make someone feel strong love or care, or to make them feel sad or hurt.
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.”
1834, Leigh Hunt, “A Pinch of Snuff (Concluded.)”Here, yearns means stirs strong feeling, both pain and pleasure, in me.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.
1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”Here, yernes means grieves or troubles, so it does not bother me.Note
- 6A strong feeling of wanting someone or something.
"After he had made a record date with us in 1935, I always had a yearn for Ben," he said years later.
2010, Frank Buchmann-Moller, Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster - 7In some northern dialects: to make milk go thick and lumpy, or for milk to do this, when making cheese.
- 8To make cheese from curdled milk, or for cheese to be made this way.
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Practice
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Origin
It comes from the Old English word ġeornan, which meant 'to desire' or 'to beg.' The noun comes from the verb.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Yearn descends from Old English ġeornan, meaning to desire or beg. en.wiktionary.org
- The noun derives from the verb. en.wiktionary.org