WANTING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Wanting

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/wˈɑntɪŋ/ /wˈɑnɪŋ/ 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."

adjective

Wanting adj. Absent; lacking; missing; also, deficient; destitute; needy; as, one of the twelve is wanting; I shall not be wanting in exertion.

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Etymology of 'Wanting'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wanting" Quotes from Famous Books

... things. For the measure of right judgment attained by some, whether in the contemplation of Divine things or in directing human affairs according to Divine rules, is no more than suffices for their salvation. This measure is wanting to none who is without mortal sin through having sanctifying grace, since if nature does not fail in necessaries, much less does grace fail: wherefore it is written (1 John 2:27): "(His) unction teacheth you of ...

— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... who was the lady of ladies would be inspired to accept the direct dominion. If not, he was ready to judge those men worthy to be its kings who by her grace and leave should undertake the task of themselves. Unlicensed Undertakers were not wanting, much to his disgust. He wrote to Cecil in November, 1595, that he heard Mr. Dudley and others were sending ships. He besought that none be suffered to soil the enterprise, and that he should be thought worthy to govern ...

— Sir Walter Ralegh - A Biography • William Stebbing

... said, hurriedly. "Don't pretend. I know how you feel, of course. But I have been wanting to tell you this for a long time. I hadn't the courage, or I was too much ashamed, or something. And this is a strange place to say it—and time. But when I saw you just now I—I felt as if I must say it. I couldn't wait ...

— Fair Harbor • Joseph Crosby Lincoln

... unobtrusive majesty, the deep, and the calm, and the perpetual,—that which must be sought ere it is seen, and loved ere it is understood,—things which the angels work out for us daily, and yet vary eternally, which are never wanting, and never repeated, which are to be found always yet each found but once; it is through these that the lesson of devotion is chiefly taught, and the blessing of ...

— The Ontario High School Reader • A.E. Marty

... filled with the records of kings and soldiers, of intrigues and fighting, these no more express the real life of a people than fever and delirium express a normal manhood. Though king and court and high society arouse our disgust or pity, records are not wanting to show that private life in England remained honest and pure even in the worst days of the Restoration. While London society might be entertained by the degenerate poetry of Rochester and the dramas of Dryden and Wycherley, English ...

— English Literature - Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World • William J. Long

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