SIGH • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Sigh

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noun

Sigh n.

A deep and prolonged audible inspiration or respiration of air, as when fatigued or grieved; the act of sighing. "I could drive the boat with my sighs."

Figuratively, a manifestation of grief. "With their sighs the air Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite."

verb

Sigh v. t.

To exhale (the breath) in sighs. "Never man sighed truer breath."

To utter sighs over; to lament or mourn over. "Ages to come, and men unborn, Shall bless her name, and sigh her fate."

To express by sighs; to utter in or with sighs. "They... sighed forth proverbs." "The gentle swain... sighs back her grief."

Sigh v. i. (past & past part. sighed; pres. part. sighing)

To inhale a larger quantity of air than usual, and immediately expel it; to make a deep single audible respiration, especially as the result or involuntary expression of fatigue, exhaustion, grief, sorrow, or the like.

Hence, to lament; to grieve. "He sighed deeply in his spirit."

To make a sound like sighing. "And the coming wind did roar more loud, And the sails did sigh like sedge." "The winter winds are wearily sighing."

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Etymology of 'Sigh'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sigh" Quotes from Famous Books

... with a sigh, We wondered... Our minds evolved grim hordes of huns, Our bruised hearts sank beneath the guns, On our very souls they thundered. Can you wonder?—Can you wonder, That we wondered, As we heard the huns' guns thunder? That we looked in one another's ...

— 'All's Well!' • John Oxenham

... in this trial which may be worth observing. A letter between Mary and Babington was read, in which mention was made of the earl of Arundel and his brothers: on hearing their names, she broke into a sigh. "Alas," said she, "what has the noble house of the Howards suffered for my sake!" She affirmed, with regard to the same letter, that it was easy to forge the handwriting and cipher of another; she was afraid that this was too familiar a practice with Walsingham, who, she also heard, had frequently ...

— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. - From Elizabeth to James I. • David Hume

... presented a sight which would have appealed strongly to their distant friends in the east had they been able to see it. Seldom did any figure stir and the weird silence was unbroken save by an occasional sigh of the wind as it swept past the dwarfed trees ...

— The Go Ahead Boys and Simon's Mine • Ross Kay

... great, deep sigh of thankfulness, and leaned limply back in the carriage. "Oh, papa," she exclaimed, "you can't imagine what a relief it is to hear that! I felt so much to blame, that now it seems as if a great weight had been lifted ...

— The Little Colonel's House Party • Annie Fellows Johnston

... discontent which leaves no possible margin for hope for the morrow. If one could only make a virtue of the resignation which is thrust upon one by an undaunted destiny," she concluded with a long-drawn sigh, "one might be the better ...

— The Doctor's Daughter • "Vera"

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