• Want

    Pronunciation

    • UK enPR: wŏnt, IPA: /wÉ’nt/
    • Rhymes: -É’nt
    • US IPA: /wÉ”nt/ also enPR: wÅ­nt, IPA: /wÊŒnt/, /wÉ‘nt/
    • (some accents) enPR: wônt, IPA: /wɔːnt/
    Dictionary.com
    • Rhymes: -ɔːnt

    Alternative forms

    Origin

    From Middle English wanten ("to lack"), from Old Norse vanta ("to lack"), from Proto-Germanic *wanatōną ("to be wanting, lack"), from *wanô ("lack, deficiency"), from Proto-Indo-European *(e)wAn-, *wān- ("empty"). Cognate with Middle High German wan ("not full, empty"), Middle Dutch wan ("empty, poor"), Old English wana ("want, lack, absence, deficiency"), Latin vanus ("empty"). See wan.

    Full definition of want

    Verb

    1. (transitive) To wish for or to desire (something). from 18th c.
      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 13, And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them. Soft heartedness caused more harm than good.
      • 2013, Henry Petroski, Geothermal Energy, Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.
    2. What do you want to eat?   I want you to leave.   I never wanted to go back to live with my mother.   I want to be an astronaut when I'm older.   I don't want him to marry Gloria, I want him to marry me!   What do you want from me?   Do you want anything from the shops?
    3. (intransitive, now dated) To be lacking, not to exist. from 13th c.
      There was something wanting in the play.
      • DrydenThe 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.
    4. (transitive) To lack, not to have (something). from 13th c.
      • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.3.7:he that hath skill to be a pilot wants a ship; and he that could govern a commonwealth ... wants means to exercise his worth, hath not a poor office to manage.
      • James MerrickNot what we wish, but what we want,
        Oh, let thy grace supply!
      • AddisonI observed that your whip wanted a lash to it.
    5. (transitive, colloquially with verbal noun as object) To be in need of; to require (something). from 15th c.
      • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 2The mowing-machine always wanted oiling. Barnet turned it under Jacob's window, and it creaked—creaked, and rattled across the lawn and creaked again.
    6. That chair wants fixing.
    7. (intransitive, dated) To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack.
      • Ben JonsonYou have a gift, sir (thank your education),
        Will never let you want.
      • Alexander PopeFor as in bodies, thus in souls, we find
        What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind.

    Usage notes

    This is a catenative verb. See

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    Terms derived from want (verb)

    Noun

    want

    (countable and uncountable; plural wants)
    1. (countable) A desire, wish, longing.
    2. (countable, often followed by of) Lack, absence.
      • circa 1591 William Shakespeare, King Henry VI Part 2, act 4, sc. 8:Heavens and honour be witness, that no want of resolution in me, but only my followers' base and ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels.
      • For Want of a Nail (proverb):For want of a nail the shoe was lost.For want of a shoe the horse was lost.For want of a horse the rider was lost.For want of a rider the battle was lost.For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
    3. (uncountable) Poverty.
      • Jonathan SwiftNothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want.
    4. Something needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt.
      • PaleyHabitual superfluities become actual wants.
    5. (UK, mining) A depression in coal strata, hollowed out before the subsequent deposition took place.

    Derived terms

    Anagrams

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