What's the difference between wish and yearn?

Wish


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To have a desire or yearning; to long; to hanker.
  • (v. t.) To desire; to long for; to hanker after; to have a mind or disposition toward.
  • (v. t.) To frame or express desires concerning; to invoke in favor of, or against, any one; to attribute, or cal down, in desire; to invoke; to imprecate.
  • (v. t.) To recommend; to seek confidence or favor in behalf of.
  • (n.) Desire; eager desire; longing.
  • (n.) Expression of desire; request; petition; hence, invocation or imprecation.
  • (n.) A thing desired; an object of desire.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I wish to clarify that for the period 1998 to 2002 I was employed by Fifa to work on a wide range of matters relating to football,” Platini wrote.
  • (2) "The Republic genuinely wishes Northern Ireland well and that includes the 12.5% corporate tax rate," he said.
  • (3) When asked why the streets of London were not heaving with demonstrators protesting against Russia turning Aleppo into the Guernica of our times, Stop the War replied that it had no wish to add to the “jingoism” politicians were whipping up against plucky little Russia .
  • (4) Following the hypothesis that infertile patients may present emotional conflicts with regard to the wish of having a child, psychodynamic interviews were carried out with 116 infertile couples concomitantly with their first consultation at the Sterility Department.
  • (5) Last November he bluntly warned EU chiefs he could, if he wished, “flood Europe” with refugees.
  • (6) But I don't wish to be too hard on the judge for not taking that view.
  • (7) And any Labour commitment on spending is fatally undermined by their deficit amnesia.” Davey widened the attack on the Tories, following a public row this week between Clegg and Theresa May over the “snooper’s charter”, by accusing his cabinet colleague Eric Pickles of coming close to abusing his powers by blocking new onshore developments against the wishes of some local councils.
  • (8) This search represents movement beyond the significance of infantile wish-fulfillment aspects of religiosity toward the broader domain of ego functioning and quality of object relations.
  • (9) It’s clear which way the ultra-right community around Ukip wishes to go: their timelines are full of praise for Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders , and blazing with imagery – both real and fake – of migrant riots in France and Sweden.
  • (10) The content and dynamics of two 11-session psychotherapy groups led by physicians for 18 adult patients with insulin-dependent diabetes are described as a guide for others wishing to use this form of treatment.
  • (11) Management and treatment issues are surveyed, such as the necessity to recognize that in some adolescents violence erupts not from narcissitic rage but from strong wishes for affectionate contact.
  • (12) "Plymouth Argyle is a proper football club and I wish them well," said Hughton.
  • (13) Many cases before the commissioner remain unresolved, although those who wish to pursue matters to the tribunal as part of the transitional arrangements will not have to pay an additional fee to appeal to the tribunal.
  • (14) It is indispensable to establish a close cooperation between the public health authorities and the private physician, and we therefore wish to sincerely thank all colleagues and Public Health Officers for their collaboration.
  • (15) An accurate portrait of BLS and ACLS instructors is crucial for organizations such as the American Heart Association if they wish to attract and retain instructors.
  • (16) If you can't give them everything at once, you may be able to satisfy at least some of the items on their wish list.
  • (17) Despite fulfilling a boyhood wish to play for Milan when he returned to Italy, the striker admitted he erred in taking his career back to Serie A, having had a controversial spell at Internazionale before City recruited him for £17.5m in August 2010.
  • (18) We wish to thank once again all the Chinese people and people around the world who have supported Beijing 2022 in this extraordinary bid journey.” Earlier, the president Xi threw his weight behind China’s bid, promising the “strongest support” for the Beijing Games in a one-minute video address to the IOC delegates.
  • (19) Fitzgibbon notes that these documents had been tabled contrary to the wishes of the defence sub-commitee.
  • (20) Early work showed a relationship between these two molecules, which we wished to further document, in particular because of the growing realization of the functional importance of CD28 in some T cell activation pathways.

Yearn


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To pain; to grieve; to vex.
  • (v. i.) To be pained or distressed; to grieve; to mourn.
  • (v. i. & t.) To curdle, as milk.
  • (v. i.) To be filled with longing desire; to be harassed or rendered uneasy with longing, or feeling the want of a thing; to strain with emotions of affection or tenderness; to long; to be eager.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The next few days may well determine whether, this time, such loyalty will be in vain; but, while yearning for a clarion call and what was described as "vision" in this paper's leading article yesterday, I need to pose some pretty stark questions to Guardian readers.
  • (2) The therapist thus provides space for yearnings and compensatory 'counterworlds', frequently leading to a positive contact in a subsequent dialog about the wishes.
  • (3) I yearned for solitude; most of all, I wanted to sleep alone.
  • (4) This earlier shadow, this yearning and refracted autobiography, places Ballard at the heart of fiction of the unreal.
  • (5) The right not to be imprisoned without a fair trial has become the centrepiece of respect for the rule of law all around the world, and yet, when Ms Lynch stated at Runnymede that the fundamental principles of the Magna Carta have “given hopes to those who face oppression” and have “given a voice to those yearning for the redress of wrongs,” it was impossible not to think of Shaker Aamer, and others in Guantánamo, also “yearning for the redress of wrongs,” but finding that yearning repeatedly unfulfilled.
  • (6) As a Scot, I've found it hard not to compare the yearning for independence in Kashmir to the yearning for independence in Scotland.
  • (7) They have also retrofitted old-style nationalism for their growing populations of uprooted citizens, who harbour yearnings for belonging and community as well as material plenitude.
  • (8) Last, and this is just a hunch as a career-long only-digital nerd: perhaps after more than a decade of digital influx, people are yearning a bit more for the physical, the tangible object, the easy-to-understand.
  • (9) How can free expression and the yearning for a private life be protected in this murky arena of a gossip free-for-all?
  • (10) Cooper yearns to get back to the stage and hopes to appear in the National's new production of Racine's Phèdre next year.
  • (11) And what anti-immigrant opinion actually yearns for is to see fewer of these people on their high street."
  • (12) Nostalgia was the soldiers’ malady – a state of mind that made life in the here and now a debilitating process of yearning for that which had been lost: rose-tinted peace, happiness, loved ones.
  • (13) To send once more a message to those yearning faces beyond our shores that says, "You matter to us.
  • (14) They yearn to be taken seriously as a credible, national political force.
  • (15) The marked increased in yearning for cardiac life support skills amongst medical and nursing staff has been a major factor in the proliferation of life support training programmes at the Centre.
  • (16) Her entertaining descriptions of her time spent cooking in Chendung's famous cooking school combined with her simple, concise translations of what she learned made me yearn to start cooking immediately.
  • (17) Because people whose entire news network is dedicated to stoking the fear, anger and passions of citizens by way of animating myths and repeated use of the word “they” – they all know that 100% accuracy is immaterial to that which the heart yearns to hear.
  • (18) Sue: No matter what age, what gender, everybody feels a deep heart and groin yearning for Mary.
  • (19) Bernie is giving voice to a yearning that is out there, and that’s going to be very hard for the political establishment to overcome.” “[Tea Party Republicans] see their life chances limited, their country deteriorating along with their hopes for their children,” she adds.
  • (20) The demise of traditional opposition movements has led many to look for alternative forms of struggle, and created a yearning for God-given moral lines.