Definition of "want"

want¹

/wɒnt/

verb
third-person singular simple present wants, present participle wanting, simple past and past participle wanted
1. (transitive) To wish for or desire (something); to feel a need or desire for; to crave or demand.
  Quotations
  And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them. Soft heartedness caused more harm than good.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
  Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.
  2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4
  I want to find a supermarket. — Oh, okay. The supermarket is at 1500 Irving Street. It is near the apartment. — Great! Audio (US)(file)
  2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
  1. (by extension) To make it easy or tempting to do something undesirable, or to make it hard or challenging to refrain from doing it.
2. (transitive, in particular) To wish, desire, or demand to see, have the presence of or do business with.
  Quotations
  But now it's different, if the police want him for murder.
  2010, Fred Vargas, The Chalk Circle Man, Vintage Canada, page 75
3. (intransitive) To desire (to experience desire); to wish.
  Quotations
  TYRION: You don't want it? / BRAN: I don't really want anymore.
  2019 May 5, "The Last of the Starks", Game of Thrones season 8 episode 4 (written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss)
4. (colloquial, usually second person, often future tense) To be advised to do something (compare should, ought).
5. (transitive, now colloquial) To lack and be in need of or require (something, such as a noun or verbal noun).
  Quotations
  The lady, it is said, will inherit a fortune of three hundred pounds a year, with two cool thousands left by an uncle, on her arriving at the age of twenty-one, of which she wants but a few months.
  1741, The Gentleman's and London Magazine: Or Monthly Chronologer, 1741-1794, page 559
  Oh Jeanie, it will be hard, after every thing is ready for our happiness, if we should be sundered. It wants but a few days o' Martinmas, and then I maun enter on my new service on Loch Rannoch, where a bonny shieling is ready ...
  1839, Chambers's Journal, page 123
  In this we have just read an address to children in England, Ireland, and Scotland, in behalf of children who want food to keep them from starvation.
  1847, The American Protestant, page 27
  “Your hair wants cutting,” said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech.
  1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], chapter VII, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co.
  The mowing-machine always wanted oiling. Barnet turned it under Jacob's window, and it creaked—creaked, and rattled across the lawn and creaked again.
  1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter II, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, page 22
6. (transitive, now rare) To have occasion for (something requisite or useful); to require or need.
  Quotations
  Man wants but little, nor that little long.
  1742–1745, [Edward Young], The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] [Samuel Richardson] for A[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] Dodsley […], published 1750
  Man wants but little here below, nor wants that little long.
  1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […]; reprinted London: Elliot Stock, 1885,
  [F]or my greatest skill has been to want but little.
  1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields
7. (intransitive, dated) To be lacking or deficient or absent.
  Quotations
  They of the Citie fought valiantly with Engines, Darts, Arrows: and when Stones wanted, they threw Silver, especially molten silver.
  1625, [Samuel] Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], (please specify |part=1 to 5), London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], page 404
  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.
  a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “Preface”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760
  For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find / What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind.
  1709, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W. Lewis […], published 1711
8. (intransitive, dated) To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack.
  Quotations
  You have a gift, sir (thank your education), / Will never let you want.
  1605 (first performance), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Volpone, or The Foxe. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Ben Jonson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616
9. (transitive, archaic) To lack and be without, to not have (something).
  Quotations
  he that hath skill to be a pilot wants a ship; and he that could govern a commonwealth […] wants means to exercise his worth, hath not a poor office to manage.
  1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, partition 2, section 3, member 7
  I observed […] that your whip wanted a lash to it.
  1711 July 15 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, July 4, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 108; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853
  The least miserable among them appear to be those who turn to Dotage, and entirely lose their Memories; these meet with more Pity and Assistance, because they want many bad Qualities which abound in others.
  1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], (please specify |part=I to IV), page 141
  Not what we wish, but what we want, / Oh, let thy grace supply!
  1765, James Merrick, Psalams
  Pray Mr Marvell, can it be / You think to have persuaded me? / Then let me say: you want the art / To woo, much less to win my heart.
  1981, A. D. Hope, “His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell”, in A Book of Answers
10. (transitive, obsolete, by extension) To lack and perhaps be able or willing to do without.
  Quotations
  […] which the Kings of Assyria had left for the maintenance of this Temple sacrifices, after the ouerthrow thereof, was shared among the Chaldzans; which they by this attempt were like to lose, and therefore were willing to want his presence.
  1625, [Samuel] Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], (please specify |part=1 to 5), London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], page 50
  The Devil got notice that Grose was a-dyingSo whip! at the summons, old Satan came flying;But when he approached where poor Francis lay moaning,And saw each bed-post with its burthen a-groaning,Astonish'd, confounded, cries Satan-"By God,I'll want him, ere I take such a damnable load!"
  1789 Robert Burns: Epigram On Francis Grose The Antiquary
  For Law, Physick and Divinitie, need so the help of tongs and sciences, as thei can not want them, and yet thei require so a hole mans studie, as thei may parte with no tyme to other lerning, ...
  1797, The European Magazine, and London Review, page 226
  "Are ye sharp-set?" he asked, glancing at about the level of my knee. "Ye can eat that drop parritch."I said I feared it was his own supper. "Oh," said he, "I can do fine wanting it, I'll take the ale, though, for it slockens my cough." He drank the cup about half out, still keeping an eye upon me as he drank...
  1880 Robert Louis Stevenson. Kidnapped
11. To desire a romantic, especially sexual, relationship with someone; to lust for.
noun
countable and uncountable, plural wants
1. (countable) A desire, wish, longing.
2. (countable, often followed by of) Lack, absence, deficiency.
  Quotations
  [H]eavens and honour be witness, that no want of resolution in me, but only my followers' base and ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels.
  1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene viii]
  They are wet with the showres of the mountaines, and imbrace the rocke for want of a shelter.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Job 24:8
3. (uncountable) Poverty.
  Quotations
  Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want.
  1713, Jonathan Swift, A Preface to Bishop Burnet's Introduction
4. Something needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt.
  Quotations
  Habitual superfluities become actual wants.
  1785, William Paley, Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy
5. (UK, mining) A depression in coal strata, hollowed out before the subsequent deposition took place.

want²

/wɒnt/

noun
plural wants
1. (dialectal) A mole (Talpa europea).
  Quotations
  Lic. She hath the ears of a want. / Pec. Doth she want ears?
  1592, John Lyly, Midas; republished in Charles Wentworth Dilke, editor, Old English Plays: Being a Selection from the Early Dramatic Writers‎, volume 1, London: Whittingham and Rowland, 1814

Definition of "want"

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want2

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