Want

• POS: Noun, Verb (intransitive), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Want, n. [Originally an adj., from Icel. vant, neuter of vanr lacking, deficient. Wane, v. i.].

•  The state of not having; the condition of being without anything; absence or scarcity of what is needed or desired; deficiency; lack; as, a want of power or knowledge for any purpose; want of food and clothing.  [1913 Webster]

  "And me, his parent, would full soon devour
  For want of other prey."  [1913 Webster]

  "From having wishes in consequence of our wants, we often feel wants in consequence of our wishes."  [1913 Webster]

  "Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and more saucy."  [1913 Webster]
•  Specifically, absence or lack of necessaries; destitution; poverty; penury; indigence; need.  [1913 Webster]

  "Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want."  [1913 Webster]
•  That which is needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt; what is not possessed, and is necessary for use or pleasure.  [1913 Webster]

  "Habitual superfluities become actual wants."  [1913 Webster]
•  A depression in coal strata, hollowed out before the subsequent deposition took place.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Indigence; deficiency; defect; destitution; lack; failure; dearth; scarceness.

Want, v. t. 

•  To be without; to be destitute of, or deficient in; not to have; to lack; as, to want knowledge; to want judgment; to want learning; to want food and clothing.  [1913 Webster]

  "They that want honesty, want anything."  [1913 Webster]

  "Nor think, though men were none,
  That heaven would want spectators, God want praise."  [1913 Webster]

  "The unhappy never want enemies."  [1913 Webster]
•  To have occasion for, as useful, proper, or requisite; to require; to need; as, in winter we want a fire; in summer we want cooling breezes.  [1913 Webster]
•  To feel need of; to wish or long for; to desire; to crave.  Addison.  [1913 Webster]

  "I want to speak to you about something."  [1913 Webster]

Want, v. i. [Icel. vanta to be wanting. See Want to lack.].

•  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."  [1913 Webster]
•  To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack.  [1913 Webster]

  " Want was formerly used impersonally with an indirect object. “Him wanted audience.”"  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

  "You have a gift, sir (thank your education),
  Will never let you want."  [1913 Webster]

  "For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find
  What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Want, v. & n.
--v.
1 tr. a (often foll. by to + infin.) desire; wish for possession of; need (wants a toy train; wants it done immediately; wanted to leave; wanted him to leave). b need or desire (a person, esp. sexually). c esp. Brit. require to be attended to in esp. a specified way (the garden wants weeding). d (foll. by to + infin.) colloq. ought; should; need (you want to pull yourself together; you don't want to overdo it).
2 intr. (usu. foll. by for) lack; be deficient (wants for nothing).
3 tr. be without or fall short by (esp. a specified amount or thing) (the drawer wants a handle).
4 intr. (foll. by in, out) esp. US colloq. desire to be in, out, etc. (wants in on the deal).
5 tr. (as wanted adj.) (of a suspected criminal etc.) sought by the police.
--n.
1 (often foll. by of) a a lack, absence, or deficiency (could not go for want of time; shows great want of judgement). b poverty; need (living in great want; in want of necessities).
2 a a desire for a thing etc. (meets a long-felt want). b a thing so desired (can supply your wants).

Idiom

do not want to am unwilling to. want ad US a classified newspaper advertisement for something sought.

Derivative

wanter n.

Etymology

ME f. ON vant neut. of vanr lacking = OE wana, formed as WANE

THESAURUS

Want

absence, ache to, adulteration, aim at, ardor, arrearage, ask, awayness, bare cupboard, bare necessities, bare subsistence, be desirous of, be dying to, be found wanting, be hurting for, be in want, be indicated, be inferior, be insufficient, be pinched, be poor, become, befit, beggarliness, beggary, behoove, blank, break, burn to, call for, choose, choose to, claim, clamor for, collapse, come short, concupiscence, covet, crave, cry for, cry out for, curiosity, dearly love to, dearth, decline, defalcation, default, defect, defectibility, defectiveness, deficiency, deficit, demand, demand for, deprivation, desiderate, desideration, desideratum, desire, destitution, discontinuity, drive, drought, eagerness, empty purse, erroneousness, essential, essentials, exact, exigency, exiguousness, fail, fail of, fall away, fall short, fall shy, fallibility, famine, fancy, fantasy, faultiness, favor, follow, gap, go on welfare, grinding poverty, gripe, hand-to-mouth existence, have designs on, have nothing on, have occasion for, hiatus, homelessness, hope, horme, immaturity, impairment, impecuniousness, imperfection, impoverishment, impurity, inaccuracy, inadequacy, inadequateness, incompleteness, indigence, indispensable, inexactitude, inexactness, insufficiency, intellectual curiosity, interval, itch to, kick the beam, lack, lacuna, lag, libido, like, like to, long to, lose ground, love, love to, lust, lust after, lust for learning, meagerness, mediocrity, mendicancy, mind, miss, missing link, moneylessness, must, must item, necessaries, necessities, necessitousness, necessity, need, need for, need to, neediness, neverness, nonexistence, nonoccurrence, nonpresence, not answer, not approach, not come near, not compare, not hack it, not make it, not make out, not measure up, not qualify, not stretch, not suffice, nowhereness, occasion, omission, ought, outage, passion, patchiness, pauperism, pauperization, penury, pinch, play second fiddle, pleasure, pleasure principle, poorness, prefer, prerequire, prerequirement, prerequisite, privation, rank under, require, requirement, requisite, requisition, run short, run short of, scantiness, serve, sexual desire, shortage, shortcoming, shortfall, should, sketchiness, skimpiness, slump, starvation, starve, stop short, subserve, subtraction, take doing, take to, the necessary, the needful, thirst for knowledge, ullage, undevelopment, unevenness, unperfectedness, unsoundness, urge, want doing, want to, wantage, wanting, will, will and pleasure, wish, wish fulfillment, wish to, wish to goodness, wish very much, would fain do

ROGET THESAURUS

Want

Requirement

N requirement, need, wants, necessities, necessaries, necessaries of life, stress, exigency, pinch, sine qua non, matter of necessity, case of need, case of life or death, needfulness, essentiality, necessity, indispensability, urgency, requisition, run upon, demand, call for, charge, claim, command, injunction, mandate, order, precept, desideratum, want, Adj, required, requisite, needful, necessary, imperative, essential, indispensable, prerequisite, called for, in demand, in request, urgent, exigent, pressing, instant, crying, absorbing, in want of, destitute of, ex necessitate rei, of necessity, there is no time to lose, it cannot be spared, it cannot be dispensed with, mendacem memorem esse oportet, necessitas non habet legem, nec tecum possum trivere nec sine te.

VB require, need, want, have occasion for, not be able to do without, not be able to dispense with, prerequire, render necessary, necessitate, create a, necessity for, call for, put in requisition, make a requisition, stand in need of, lack, desiderate, desire, be necessary Adj.

Insufficiency

N insufficiency, inadequacy, inadequateness, incompetence, deficiency, imperfection, shortcoming, paucity, stint, scantiness, none to spare, bare subsistence, scarcity, dearth, want, need, lack, poverty, exigency, inanition, starvation, famine, drought, dole, mite, pittance, short allowance, short commons, half rations, banyan day, emptiness, poorness, depletion, vacancy, flaccidity, ebb tide, low water, a beggarly account of empty boxes, indigence, insolvency, drain of resources, impoverish, stint, put on short allowance, do insufficiently, scotch the snake, Adj, insufficient, inadequate, too little, not enough, unequal to, incompetent, weighed in the balance and found wanting, perfunctory, deficient, wanting imperfect, ill-furnished, ill-provided, ill- stored, ill-off, slack, at a low ebb, empty, vacant, bare, short of, out of, destitute of, devoid of, bereft of, denuded of, dry, drained, unprovided, unsupplied, unfurnished, unreplenished, unfed, unstored, untreasured, empty-handed, meager, poor, thin, scrimp, sparing, spare, stinted, starved, starving, halfstarved, famine-stricken, famished, jejune, scant, scarce, not to be had, not to be had for love or money, not to be had at any price, scurvy, stingy, at the end of one's tether, without resources, in want, in debt, insufficiently, in default of, for want of, failing, semper avarus eget.

VB be insufficient, not suffice, come short of, run dry, want, lack, need, require, caret, be in want, live from hand to mouth, render insufficient Adj, drain of resources, impoverish, stint, put on short allowance, do insufficiently, scotch the snake.

Inferiority

VB be inferior, fall short of, come short of, not pass, not come up to, want, become smaller, render smaller, hide its diminished head, retire into the shade, yield the palm, play second fiddle, be upstaged, take a back seat.

Poverty

N poverty, indigence, penury, pauperism, destitution, want, need, neediness, lack, necessity, privation, distress, difficulties, wolf at the door, bad circumstances, poor circumstances, need circumstances, embarrassed circumstances, reduced circumstances, straightened circumstances, slender means, narrow means, straits, hand to mouth existence, res angusta domi, low water, impecuniosity, beggary, mendicancy, mendicity, broken fortune, loss of fortune, insolvency, empty pocket, empty purse, light purse, beggarly account of empty boxes, poor man, pauper, mendicant, mumper, beggar, starveling, pauvre diable, fakir, schnorrer, homeless person, poor, indigent, poverty-stricken, badly off, poorly off, ill off, poor as a rat, poor as a church mouse, poor as a Job, fortuneless, dowerless, moneyless, penniless, unportioned, unmoneyed, impecunious, out of money, out of cash, short of money, short of cash, without a rap, not worth a rap, qui n'a pas le sou, out of pocket, hard up, out at elbows, out at heels, seedy, bare-footed, beggarly, beggared, destitute, fleeced, stripped, bereft, bereaved, reduced, homeless, in want, needy, necessitous, distressed, pinched, straitened, put to one's shifts, put to one's last shifts, unable to keep the wolf from the door, unable to make both ends meet, embarrassed, under hatches, involved, insolvent, in forma pauperis, zonam perdidit, a penniless lass wi' a lang pedigree, a pobreza no hay verguenza, he that is down can fall no lower, poca roba poco pensiero, steeped, in poverty to the very lips, the short and simple annals of the poor.

VB be poor, want, lack, starve, live from hand to mouth, have seen better days, go down in the world, come upon the parish, go to the dogs, go to wrack and ruin, not have a penny, not have a shot in one's locker, beg one's bread, tirer le diable par la queue, run into debt, render poor, impoverish, reduce, reduce to poverty, pauperize, fleece, ruin, bring to the parish.

Desire

N desire, wish, fancy, fantasy, want, need, exigency, mind, inclination, leaning, bent, animus, partiality, penchant, predilection, propensity, willingness, liking, love, fondness, relish, longing, hankering, inkling, solicitude, anxiety, yearning, coveting, aspiration, ambition, vaulting ambition, eagerness, zeal, ardor, empressement, breathless impatience, overanxiety, impetuosity, appetite, appetition, appetence, appetency, sharp appetite, keenness, hunger, stomach, twist, thirst, thirstiness, drouth, mouthwatering, itch, itching, prurience, cacoethes, cupidity, lust, concupiscence, edge of appetite, edge of hunger, torment of Tantalus, sweet tooth, lickerish tooth, itching palm, longing eye, wistful eye, sheep's eye, greed, voracity, passion, rage, furore, mania, manie, inextinguishable desire, dipsomania, kleptomania, lover, amateur, votary, devotee, aspirant, solicitant, candidate, applicant, supplicant, cormorant, desideratum, want, a consummation devoutly to be wished, attraction, magnet, allurement, fancy, temptation, seduction, fascination, prestige, height of one's ambition, idol, whim, whimsy, whimsey, maggot, hobby, hobby-horse, Fortunatus's cap, wishing cap, wishing stone, wishing well, desirous, desiring, inclined, partial to, fain, wishful, optative, anxious, wistful, curious, at a loss for, sedulous, solicitous, craving, hungry, sharp-set, peckish, ravening, with an empty stomach, esurient, lickerish, thirsty, athirst, parched with thirst, pinched with hunger, famished, dry, drouthy, hungry as a hunter, hungry as a hawk, hungry as a horse, hungry as a church mouse, hungry as a bear, greedy, unsatisfied, unsated, unslaked, unsaturated, eager, avid, keen, burning, fervent, ardent, agog, all agog, breathless, impatient, bent on, intent on, set on, bent upon, intent upon, set upon, mad after, enrage, rabid, dying for, devoured by desire, aspiring, ambitious, vaulting, skyaspiring, high-reaching, desirable, desired, in demand, pleasing, appetizing, appetible, tantalizing, wistfully, fain, Int, would that, would that it were!, O for!, esto perpetual, the wish being father to the thought, sua cuique voluptas, hoc erat in votis, the mouth watering, the fingers itching, aut Caesar aut nullus, Cassius has a lean and hungry look, hungry as the grave, I was born to other things, not what we wish but what we want, such joy ambition finds, the sea hath bounds but deep desire hath none, ubi mel ibi apes, desire, wish, fancy, fantasy, want, need, exigency, mind, inclination, leaning, bent, animus, partiality, penchant, predilection, propensity, willingness, liking, love, fondness, relish, longing, hankering, inkling, solicitude, anxiety, yearning, coveting, aspiration, ambition, vaulting ambition, eagerness, zeal, ardor, empressement, breathless impatience, overanxiety, impetuosity, appetite, appetition, appetence, appetency, sharp appetite, keenness, hunger, stomach, twist, thirst, thirstiness, drouth, mouthwatering, itch, itching, prurience, cacoethes, cupidity, lust, concupiscence, edge of appetite, edge of hunger, torment of Tantalus, sweet tooth, lickerish tooth, itching palm, longing eye, wistful eye, sheep's eye, greed, voracity, passion, rage, furore, mania, manie, inextinguishable desire, dipsomania, kleptomania, lover, amateur, votary, devotee, aspirant, solicitant, candidate, applicant, supplicant, cormorant, desideratum, want, a consummation devoutly to be wished, attraction, magnet, allurement, fancy, temptation, seduction, fascination, prestige, height of one's ambition, idol, whim, whimsy, whimsey, maggot, hobby, hobby-horse, Fortunatus's cap, wishing cap, wishing stone, wishing well, desirous, desiring, inclined, partial to, fain, wishful, optative, anxious, wistful, curious, at a loss for, sedulous, solicitous, craving, hungry, sharp-set, peckish, ravening, with an empty stomach, esurient, lickerish, thirsty, athirst, parched with thirst, pinched with hunger, famished, dry, drouthy, hungry as a hunter, hungry as a hawk, hungry as a horse, hungry as a church mouse, hungry as a bear, greedy, unsatisfied, unsated, unslaked, unsaturated, eager, avid, keen, burning, fervent, ardent, agog, all agog, breathless, impatient, bent on, intent on, set on, bent upon, intent upon, set upon, mad after, enrage, rabid, dying for, devoured by desire, aspiring, ambitious, vaulting, skyaspiring, high-reaching, desirable, desired, in demand, pleasing, appetizing, appetible, tantalizing, wistfully, fain, Int, would that, would that it were!, O for!, esto perpetual, the wish being father to the thought, sua cuique voluptas, hoc erat in votis, the mouth watering, the fingers itching, aut Caesar aut nullus, Cassius has a lean and hungry look, hungry as the grave, I was born to other things, not what we wish but what we want, such joy ambition finds, the sea hath bounds but deep desire hath none, ubi mel ibi apes.

VB desire, wish, wish for, be desirous, have a longing, hope, care for, affect, like, list, take to, cling to, take a fancy to, fancy, prefer, have an eye, have a mind to, find it in one's heart, have a fancy for, set one's eyes upon, cast a sheep's eye upon, look sweet upon, take into one's head, have at heart, be bent upon, set one's cap at, set one's heart upon, set one's mind upon, covet, want, miss, need, feel the want of, would fain have, would fain do, would be glad of, be hungry, have a good appetite, play a good knife and fork, hunger after, thirst after, crave after, lust after, itch after, hanker after, run mad after, raven for, die for, burn to, desiderate, sigh for, cry for, gape for, gasp for, pine for, pant for, languish for, yearn for, long, be on thorns for, hope for, aspire after, catch at, grasp at, jump at, woo, court, solicit, fish for, spell for, whistle for, put up for, ogle, cause desire, create desire, raise desire, excite desire, provoke desire, whet the appetite, appetize, titillate, allure, attract, take one's fancy, tempt, hold out temptation, hold out allurement, tantalize, make one's mouth water, faire venir l'eau a la bouche, gratify desire.

Shortcoming

VB come short of, fall short of, stop short of, come short, fall short, stop short, not reach, want, keep within bounds, keep within the mark, keep within the compass, break down, stick in the mud, collapse, flat out, come to nothing, fall through, fall to the ground, cave in, end in smoke, miss the mark, fail, lose ground, miss stays.