YEARN, YERN, v.i. [G. The sense is to strain, or stretch forward. We have earnest from the same root.]
1. To be strained; to be pained or distressed; to suffer.
Falstaff, he is dead, and we must yearn therefore.
2. Usually, to long; to feel an earnest desire; that is literally, to have a desire or inclination stretching towards the object or end. 1 Ki 3.
Joseph made haste, for his bowels did yearn upon his brother. Gen 43.
Your mothers heart yearns toward you.
--Anticlus, unable to control, spoke loud the language of his yearning soul.
YEARN, YERN, v.t. To pain; to grieve; to vex.
She laments for it, that it would yearn your heart to See It.
It yearns me not if men my garments wear.
