All 4 Uses of
yearn
in
Atonement, by Ian McEwan
- There were moments in the summer dusk after her light was out, when she burrowed in the delicious gloom of her canopy bed, and made her heart thud with luminous, yearning fantasies, little playlets in themselves, every one of which featured Leon.†
Chpt 1yearning = strongly desiring; or a strong desire
- The idea that the temple, wearing its own black band, grieved for the burned-down mansion, that it yearned for a grand and invisible presence, bestowed a faintly religious ambience.†
Chpt 1yearned = strongly desired
- The noise and press of bodies and damp tobacco air satisfied a homesick yearning for a Saturday night pub. This was the Mile End Road, and Sauchiehall Street, and everywhere in between.†
Chpt 2yearning = strongly desiring; or a strong desire
- Reading these letters at the end of an exhausting day, Briony felt a dreamy nostalgia, a vague yearning for a long-lost life.†
Chpt 3 *
Definition:
have a strong desire -- often for something difficult or impossible to have