pine
/paɪn/ verb C2- To languish; to lose flesh or wear away through distress.
- To long, to yearn so much that it causes suffering. · Laura was pining for Bill all the time he was gone.
- To grieve or mourn for.
- To inflict pain upon; to torment.
He/she/it pines · Past pined · Past participle pined · -ing form pining
Verb forms
- Base form
- pine
- He/she/it
- pines
- Past
- pined
- Past participle
- pined
- -ing form
- pining
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
I was rocked when an infant in the arms of old Ocean, and on the bosom of the beautiful Amphitrite; I have sported with the green mantle of the one and the azure robe of the other; I love the sea as a mistress, and pine if I do not often see her.”
Between these sickly shrubs grew a scanty supply of garlic, tomatoes, and eschalots; while, lone and solitary, like a forgotten sentinel, a tall pine raised its melancholy head in one of the corners of this unattractive spot, and displayed its flexible stem and fan-shaped summit dried and cracked by the fierce heat of the sub-tropical sun.
And I have also communicated with my faithful Cartwright, who would certainly have pined away at the door of my hut, as a dog does at his master’s grave, if I had not set his mind at rest about my safety.”
“It would make very little difference to me,” said Caderousse, “if I were retaken, I am a poor creature to live alone, and sometimes pine for my old comrades; not like you, heartless creature, who would be glad never to see them again.”
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