- Want
- Want Want, v. i. [Icel. vanta to be wanting. See {Want} to
lack.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To be absent; to be deficient or lacking; to fail; not to
be sufficient; to fall or come short; to lack; -- often
used impersonally with of; as, it wants ten minutes of
four.
[1913 Webster]
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. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
2. To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack. [1913 Webster]
You have a gift, sir (thank your education), Will never let you want. --B. Jonson. [1913 Webster]
For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
Note: Want was formerly used impersonally with an indirect object. ``Him wanted audience.'' --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.