PINING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pining mean? 

• PINING (noun)
  The noun PINING has 1 sense:

1. a feeling of deep longing

  Familiarity information: PINING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PINING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A feeling of deep longing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("pining" is a kind of...):

hungriness; longing; yearning (prolonged unfulfilled desire or need)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pining"):

lovesickness (a pining for a loved one)

Derivation:

pine (have a desire for something or someone who is not present)

 Context examples 

He should not have to think of her as pining in the retirement of Mansfield for him, rejecting Sotherton and London, independence and splendour, for his sake.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The moment Mrs. Carrol saw the girl's altered face, she was illuminated with a new idea, and exclaimed to herself, Now I understand it all—the child has been pining for young Laurence.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I thought of the little baby, who, Mrs. Creakle said, had been pining away for some time, and who, they believed, would die too.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And you are not a pining outcast amongst strangers?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"More cruel than ever. Don't you see how I'm pining away?" and Laurie gave his broad chest a sounding slap and heaved a melodramatic sigh.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I hated it the first time I set my eyes on it—a sickly, whining, pining thing!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

My aunt informed me how he incessantly occupied himself in copying everything he could lay his hands on, and kept King Charles the First at a respectful distance by that semblance of employment; how it was one of the main joys and rewards of her life that he was free and happy, instead of pining in monotonous restraint; and how (as a novel general conclusion) nobody but she could ever fully know what he was.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

We are pining for a visit.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Mr. Miles, the master, affirmed that he would do very well if he had fewer cakes and sweetmeats sent him from home; but the mother's heart turned from an opinion so harsh, and inclined rather to the more refined idea that John's sallowness was owing to over-application and, perhaps, to pining after home.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I'm pining to know.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)