sigh
/sʌɪ
/verb [no object]
1Emit a long, deep audible breath expressing sadness, relief, tiredness, or similar: Harry sank into a chair and sighed with relief...
- Tori inwardly sighed with relief that they were on a first name basis once again.
- For those who sigh wearily at this impossible aspiration there are other solutions.
- He looked up at the sky with a wistful expression, a gust slightly lifting up his long hair, and sighed.
Synonyms
breathe out, exhale;
groan, moan
rare suspire
1.1(Of the wind or something through which the wind blows) make a sound resembling a sigh: a breeze made the treetops sigh...
- All he could hear was the wind sighing in the trees and the soft lap of water against the wall surrounding the lake.
- A breeze sighed through the branches and we came to a glade, a secret place of fir and silver birch.
- The constant wind that hugs the hill-side seems to sigh at the memory.
Synonyms
rustle, whisper, murmur, sough
1.2 (sigh for) literary Feel a deep yearning for (someone or something lost, unattainable, or distant): he sighed for days gone by...
- The joys of rereading might have offered Mallarme a stronger antidote to his ennui than sighing for distant, exotic lands.
- The words she remembered said, ‘My heart cries for you, sighs for you, dies for you.’
- Film buffs in Thrissur, tired of watching classics in the DVD format at art house shows, have been sighing for that matchless experience - seeing the magic unfold on the silver screen.
Synonyms
yearn, long, pine, ache, languish, carry a torch;
grieve over, cry/weep for/over, fret about, shed tears for;
bemoan, rue, miss, mourn, lament, regret the loss/absence of, hanker for/after, eat one's heart out over, hunger/thirst for;
cry out for, pant for, crave, have a yen for, dream of
noun
1A long, deep audible exhalation expressing sadness, relief, tiredness, or similar: she let out a long sigh of despair figurative the councils heaved a sigh of relief when they saved over £6m between them...
- They looked at each other for a moment, and then Lisa let out a sigh of what sounded like frustration.
- I don't expect you to run wailing through the streets but couldn't you rustle up a small sigh of regret?
- Passengers waiting on the platform breathe a collective sigh of exasperation.
1.1A gentle sound resembling a sigh, especially one made by the wind: except for the sigh of the wind, it was very quiet...
- The only sound was the sigh of the wind across the Pripyat marshes, accelerating to a low moan among the squat blocks of flats.
- The later acoustic-led Thumbing My Way is a sigh on a desert wind.
- For a moment I only stood where I was, listening to the gurgle of the water and the sighs of the wind.
Origin
Middle English (as a verb): probably a back-formation from sighte, past tense of siche, sike, from Old English sīcan.