WANT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Want

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/wɑnt/ /wɔnt/ Listen

verb

Want v. t. (past & past part. wanted; pres. part. wanting)

To be without; to be destitute of, or deficient in; not to have; to lack; as, to want knowledge; to want judgment; to want learning; to want food and clothing. "They that want honesty, want anything." "Nor think, though men were none, That heaven would want spectators, God want praise." "The unhappy never want enemies."

To have occasion for, as useful, proper, or requisite; to require; to need; as, in winter we want a fire; in summer we want cooling breezes.

To feel need of; to wish or long for; to desire; to crave. " What wants my son?" "I want to speak to you about something."

Want v. i.

To be absent; to be deficient or lacking; to fail; not to be sufficient; to fall or come short; to lack; often used impersonally with of; as, it wants ten minutes of four. "The disposition, the manners, and the thoughts are all before it; where any of those are wanting or imperfect, so much wants or is imperfect in the imitation of human life."

To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack. "You have a gift, sir (thank your education), Will never let you want." "For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind." Note: Want was formerly used impersonally with an indirect object. "Him wanted audience."

noun

Want n.

The state of not having; the condition of being without anything; absence or scarcity of what is needed or desired; deficiency; lack; as, a want of power or knowledge for any purpose; want of food and clothing. "And me, his parent, would full soon devour For want of other prey." "From having wishes in consequence of our wants, we often feel wants in consequence of our wishes." "Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and more saucy."

Specifically, absence or lack of necessaries; destitution; poverty; penury; indigence; need. "Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want."

That which is needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt; what is not possessed, and is necessary for use or pleasure. "Habitual superfluities become actual wants."

(Mining) A depression in coal strata, hollowed out before the subsequent deposition took place. (Eng.)

Synonyms: Indigence; deficiency; defect; destitution; lack; failure; dearth; scarceness.

See images of 'Want'

Etymology of 'Want'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Want" Quotes from Famous Books

... laughed my uncle, "I'm afraid it will have to come into our larder, for a bit of venison is the very thing we want." ...

— Nat the Naturalist - A Boy's Adventures in the Eastern Seas • G. Manville Fenn

... call'd, if legendary fame be true, From Hama,6 whom a club-arm'd Cimbrian slew. There lives, deep-learn'd and primitively just, A faithful steward of his Christian trust, My friend, and favorite inmate of my heart— That now is forced to want its better part! 20 What mountains now, and seas, alas! how wide! From me this other, dearer self divide, Dear, as the sage7 renown'd for moral truth To the prime spirit of the Attic youth! Dear, as the Stagyrite8 to Ammon's son,9 His pupil, who disdain'd the world ...

— Poemata (William Cowper, trans.) • John Milton

... regiment in particular, quartered in Somerset House, expressly refused to yield their place to the northern army. But those officers who would gladly on such an occasion have inflamed the quarrel, were absent or in confinement; and for want of leaders, the soldiers were at last, with great reluctance, obliged to submit. Monk with his army took ...

— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part E. - From Charles I. to Cromwell • David Hume

... that country would also receive worse treatment than if the Amendment was not passed. Take any class that have been slaves, and you will find that they are the worst when free, and become the hardest masters. The colored women of the South say they do not want to get married to the negro, as their husbands can take their children away from them, and also appropriate their earnings. The black women are more intelligent than the men, because they have learned something from their mistresses. She then related incidents showing ...

— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... these exertions that the improved tone of public opinion is due, and the general, moral and intellectual elevation of the present day are largely owing to the same cause. In the old benighted times before 1900 much wealth and ability were, for want of organization, allowed to run almost to waste as far as the general good of society was concerned. Men of means led aimless lives, squandering their riches in foreign cities, or staying at home to accumulate more and more, forgetting, ...

— The Dominion in 1983 • Ralph Centennius

More quotes...