Definition of "yearning" []

• A persistent, often wistful or melancholy desire; a longing: a yearning for romance and adventure. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "And all the while the dog sat and watched him, a certain yearning wistfulness in its eyes, for it looked upon him as the fire-provider, and the fire was slow in coming."
• "The wrong done him by the TRANSCONTINENTAL loomed colossal, for strong upon him were all the dreary months of vain yearning, of hunger and privation, and his present hunger awoke and gnawed at him, reminding him that he had eaten nothing since the day before, and little enough then."
• "Zuckerberg seems fueled by an innate fire to maximize what math, technology and psychology can propel Facebook to, but his more conscious yearning is for something outside the domain of what Facebook could bring him - the company of a girl with whom he feels comfortable being himself."