Yearn vs Seek - What's the difference?
yearn | seek |
To long, have a strong desire (for something).
* All I yearn for is a simple life.
To long for something in the past with melancholy, nostalgically
To be pained or distressed; to grieve; to mourn.
* Shakespeare
To pain; to grieve; to vex.
* Shakespeare
* Shakespeare
(lb) To try to find, to look for, to search.
:
*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= (label) To inquire for; to ask for; to solicit; to beseech.
:
*Bible, (w) xi. 16
*:Others, tempting him, sought of him a sign.
*1960 , (Lobsang Rampa), :
*:“My, my! It is indeed a long way yet, look you!” said the pleasant woman of whom I sought directions.
(lb) To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.
:
*1880 , , :
*:But persecution sought the lives of men of this character.
*1886 , Constantine Popoff, translation of (Leo Tolstoy)'s :
*:I can no longer seek fame or glory, nor can I help trying to get rid of my riches, which separate me from my fellow-creatures.
*
*:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
To go, move, travel (in a given direction).
:
*, Bk.V:
*:Ryght so he sought towarde Sandewyche where he founde before hym many galyard knyghtes
(lb) To try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.
*:
*:Seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
*1726
*:Since great Ulysses sought the Phrygian plains
In transitive terms the difference between yearn and seek
is that yearn is to pain; to grieve; to vex while seek is to try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.As verbs the difference between yearn and seek
is that yearn is to long, have a strong desire (for something) while seek is to try to find, to look for, to search.yearn
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) giernan, from (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- Falstaff he is dead, and we must yearn therefore.
- It would yearn your heart to see it.
- It yearns me not if men my garments wear.
Derived terms
() * yearner * yearnful * yearnly * yearning * yearnsome * yearnyEtymology 2
See .Anagrams
*seek
English
Verb
Catherine Clabby
Focus on Everything, passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.
(tr.), (Alexander Pope), ''(Homer)'s (Odyssey), Book II, line 33