yearn Definition
yearn (yʉrn)
intransitive verb
- to be filled with longing or desire
- to feel tenderness or sympathy
Etymology: ME yernen < OE gyrnan < georn, eager, akin to Ger gern, gladly: see hortatory
yearn Related Forms
yearn′er noun
yearn Synonyms
yearn
v.
Antonyms
yearn Usage Examples
Object
heart: Beneath the designer gear my heart yearned for vast horizons, endless gallops, wildness and wilderness.
Preposition: for
- freedom: Posted by Elsie on 22 January, 2004 at 8:53 AM yearn for freedom.
- peace: We yearn for peace that is more than the absence of violence - for peace that reflects God's shalom for all creation.
- something: I yearned for something to give, either to loose my gayness or to find a way of living without God.
- love: Does your heart yearn for a love lost long ago?
- return: Nor do we yearn for a return to medieval peasant agriculture.
- day: In my darker hours, I dream of & yearn for this day to come.
Infinitive complement
- escape: A girl trapped by her roots yearns to escape back to Majorca to rekindle a doomed holiday romance.
- know: And I yearn to know what those futures held and how they dealt with them.
- live: He's a builder and she's a classical composer who now yearns to live by the sea.
- return: But Nancy's rebellious nature clashes with the Social Register set, and she yearns to return home to a post-Civil War Virginia.
- see: We humans long have yearned to see our surroundings from the heavens.
- go: That is where the beleaguered people of the 21st century yearn to go.
Modifying Another Word
- secretly: Susanna and Karin are loyal to their Aunt, but secretly yearn for much more from life.
- still: Do her empty arms still yearn for me alone?
- always: Despite a successful career in private business, Paul Allen always yearned for a return to his public sector roots.
- all: Prophesy provides the answers we all yearn for in uncertain times.
- often: While men often yearn for the latest gadgets on their new bike, women want it to look as good as it rides.
- really: Assuming they do not really yearn to become latter-day Roman legions, many people may be relieved to hear the truth.
Browse dictionary entries near yearn
- ‹ yearly
- ‹ yearlong
- ‹ yearling
- ‹ yearbook
- ‹ Year To Date
- ‹ year-round
- ‹ year-over-year
- ‹ year-end dividend
- ‹ year-end
- ‹ year and a day rule
- yearning ›
- years ›
- years, estate for ›
- yeasayer ›
- yeast ›
- yeast infection ›
- yeasty ›
- Yeats ›
- Yeats, Georgie ›
- Yeats, Georgie ne¤ e Hyde-Lees ›

