want — ONAD · Shobdo

want /wänt, , wɑnt

, wônt, wɔnt

▸ verb

1 [with object] have a desire to possess or do (something); wish for:

I want an apple

[with infinitive] we want to go to the beach

[with object and infinitive] she wanted me to go to her room

[no object] I'll give you a lift into town if you want.

▪ wish to consult or speak to (someone):

Tony wants me in the studio.

▪ (usually be wanted) (of the police) desire to question or apprehend (a suspected criminal):

he is wanted by the police in connection with an arms theft.

▪ desire (someone) sexually:

I've wanted you since the first moment I saw you.

▪ [no object] (want in/into/out/away) informal, mainly North American desire to be in or out of a particular place or situation:

if anyone wants out, there's the door.

2 [with infinitive] informal ought, should, or need to do something:

you don't want to believe everything you hear.

▪ [with present participle] mainly British (of a thing) require to be attended to in a specified way:

the wheel wants greasing.

3 [no object] literary lack or be short of something desirable or essential:

you shall want for nothing while you are with me.

▪ [with object] archaic (chiefly used in expressions of time) be short of or lack (a specified amount or thing):

it wanted twenty minutes to midnight

it wants a few minutes of five o'clock.

▸ noun

1 a lack or deficiency of something:

Victorian houses which are in want of repair

it won't be through want of trying.

▪ the state of being poor and in need of essentials; poverty:

freedom from want.

2 a desire for something:

the expression of our wants and desires.

– PHRASES
for want of
because of a lack of (something):

for want of a better location we ate our picnic lunch in the cemetery.

– DERIVATIVES
wanter

– ORIGIN Middle English : the noun from Old Norse vant, neuter of vanr ‘lacking’; the verb from Old Norse vanta‘be lacking’. The original notion of ‘lack’ was early extended to ‘need’ and from this developed the sense ‘desire’.