Without vs Want - What's the difference?
without | want |
(archaic, or, literary) outside, externally
* c.1600s , (William Shakespeare), (Macbeth)
* 1900 , (Ernest Dowson), Benedictio Domini , lines 13-14
* 1904 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), (The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez) (Norton 2005, p.1100)
Lacking something.
Outside of, beyond.
:
*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
*:Without the gate / Some drive the cars, and some the coursers rein.
*(Thomas Burnet) (1635?-1715)
*:Eternity, before the world and after, is without our reach.
*1967 , (George Harrison),
*:Life goes on within you and without you.
Not having, containing, characteristic of, etc.
:
*, chapter=22
, title= *1967 , (George Harrison),
*:Life goes on within you and without you.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Not doing or not having done something.
:
:
*
*:Athelstan Arundel walked home […], foaming and raging.He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
Unless, except (introducing a clause).
*:
*:And whanne this old man had sayd thus he came to one of tho knyghtes and sayd I haue lost alle that I haue sette in the / For thou hast rulyd the ageynste me as a warryour and vsed wrong werres with vayne glory more for the pleasyr of the world than to please me / therfor thow shalt be confounded withoute thow yelde me my tresour
*1913 , DH Lawrence, Sons and Lovers , Penguin, 2006, p.264:
*:‘Why,’ he blurted, ‘because they say I've no right to come up like this—without we mean to marry—’
*1883 , (Howard Pyle), (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood)
*:But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.
To wish for or to desire (something).
* , chapter=13
, title= * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
, title=
* Dryden
To lack, not to have (something).
*, II.3.7:
* James Merrick
* Addison
(colloquially with verbal noun as object) To be in need of; to require (something).
* 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 2
(dated) To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack.
* Ben Jonson
* Alexander Pope
(countable) A desire, wish, longing.
(countable, often, followed by of) Lack, absence.
* , King Henry VI Part 2 , act 4, sc. 8:
* :
(uncountable) Poverty.
* Jonathan Swift
Something needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt.
* Paley
(UK, mining) A depression in coal strata, hollowed out before the subsequent deposition took place.
As an adverb without
is (archaic|or|literary) outside, externally.As a preposition without
is outside of, beyond.As a conjunction without
is unless, except (introducing a clause).As a proper noun want is
a personification of want.without
English
Alternative forms
* withoute (archaic); wythoute, wythowt (obsolete), wythowte (obsolete)Adverb
(en adverb)- Macbeth: There's blood upon your face
- Murderer: 'tis Banquo's then
- Macbeth: 'tis better thee without then he within.
- Strange silence here: without , the sounding street
- Heralds the world's swift passage to the fire
- I knew that someone had entered the house cautiously from without .
- Being from a large, poor family, he learned to live without .
Preposition
(English prepositions)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.}}
Travels and travails, passage=Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema.}}
Derived terms
* withoutnessSynonyms
* lacking, outwith, with no, -less, , sansAntonyms
* (outside) within * (not having) with, having, characteristic of, endowed withConjunction
(English Conjunctions)Statistics
*want
English
Alternative forms
* waunt (obsolete)Verb
(en verb)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=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.}}
Geothermal Energy, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=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.}}
- 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.
- 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.
- Not what we wish, but what we want , / Oh, let thy grace supply!
- I observed that your whip wanted a lash to it.
- The mowing-machine always wanted oiling. Barnet turned it under Jacob's window, and it creaked—creaked, and rattled across the lawn and creaked again.
- 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.
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb. SeeSynonyms
* (desire) set one's heart on, wish for, would like * (lack) be without * (require) need, be in need ofDerived terms
* I want to know * want-away * wanted * want for * wanting *Noun
(poverty)- [H]eavens 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 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.
- Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want .
- Habitual superfluities become actual wants .