yearn
/jəːn
/verb [no object]
1Have an intense feeling of longing for something, typically something that one has lost or been separated from: she yearned for a glimpse of him [with infinitive]: they yearned to go home...
- My heart aches now, yearning for you to come back and hug me for the last time before you leave.
- My heart yearned for you for months and now its desire is fulfilled!
- I do love this country and I am not about to stop yearning for change and doing what I can to affect a change - but one grows weary.
Synonyms
long, pine, crave, desire, want, want badly, wish, have/feel a longing, covet, lust, pant, hunger, thirst, ache, be aching, itch, be itching;
hanker after, dream of, fancy, have one's heart set on, be bent on, eat one's heart out over
informal have a yen, yen, be dying
archaic be athirst for, be desirous
rare suspire for
1.1 archaic Be filled with compassion or warm feeling: no fellow spirit yearned towards her
Derivatives
yearner
- It said the ‘martyrdom lovers and heaven yearners’ selected the three hotel targets after ‘a month of surveillance and information gathering of the targets.’
- I couldn't recognise the yearner of the poems in this woman of sass and spirit.
Origin
Old English giernan, from a Germanic base meaning 'eager'.