yearn

/jɜːn/ (bre, ipa) · /jɜːrn/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈyərn/ (ame, mw)

yearn — 動詞

  • yearnpresent simple I / you / we / they
  • yearnshe / she / it
  • yearnedpast simple
  • yearning-ing form

1. to feel a deep, often sad wish for something that is far away, lost, or almost i

1.動詞不及物C1
釋義

渴望；嚮往

對遙不可及之物的深切想望

to feel a deep, often sad wish for something that is far away, lost, or almost impossible to reach — such as a childhood home, a person who has gone, or a life you have never known.

例句

After fifteen years in London, Yuki still yearned for the quiet streets of her old neighbourhood in Kyoto.

在倫敦住了十五年，Yuki 仍渴望回到京都老社區那寧靜的街道。

yearn for + place noun naming a distant or lost setting

Many of the older refugees yearn to return one day to the homes they were forced to leave.

許多年長的難民都嚮往有一天能回到當年被迫離開的家。

yearn to + verb expressing a hard-to-reach hope

同義詞
  • long

    neutral and very common; 'long for' is the everyday equivalent

  • crave

    stronger and more physical; often used for food, drugs, or sudden urges

  • pine

    formal and literary; suggests slow sadness, often pine for a person or place

反義詞
  • shun

    deliberately stay away from rather than reach toward

  • reject

文法句型

yearn for + noun

yearn to + verb

用法筆記

Subject is usually a person; the thing yearned for is typically distant, lost, or out of reach, not a casual everyday wish. Strongly prefers the patterns 'yearn for X' or 'yearn to do X'; very rarely takes a direct object.

常見錯誤

❌I yearn a holiday.
✅I yearn for a holiday.
💡'yearn' is intransitive; the thing wanted goes after 'for'.
❌She yearned for eating chocolate after the diet.
✅She yearned to eat chocolate after the diet.
💡after 'yearn' use the to-infinitive, not the -ing form.

2. to feel warm, gentle, almost protective love toward another person — for example

2.動詞不及物C2
釋義

心生憐愛

心中湧起溫柔疼惜之情

to feel warm, gentle, almost protective love toward another person — for example, the soft pull a mother feels watching her sleeping baby, or the quiet ache an older brother feels for a younger sister who is struggling.

例句

Watching her newborn sleep, Élise felt her heart yearn toward the tiny, helpless body in the cot.

看著剛出生的寶寶熟睡，Élise 的心對嬰兒床裡那小小的、無助的身軀湧起一陣憐愛。

yearn toward + person showing tender protective feeling

The old night nurse yearned over every sick child on the ward, treating each one like her own grandchild.

那位老夜班護士對病房裡每個生病的孩子都心生憐愛，把他們都當成自己的孫子在照顧。

yearn over + person showing maternal compassion

同義詞
  • pity

    feel sorrow for someone's pain; less warm than yearn toward

  • ache

    informal; 'my heart aches for her' is the everyday equivalent

文法句型

yearn toward + person

yearn over + person

用法筆記

Much rarer than sense 1 and mostly literary or biblical in tone. Distinguish from sense 1 by the preposition: 'yearn toward / over [a person]' = tender love; 'yearn for [thing or person]' = strong longing for something distant.

常見錯誤

❌She yearned for her baby.' (when meaning tender love)
✅Her heart yearned toward her baby.
💡sense 2 takes 'toward' or 'over', not 'for'.