Etimology
From Middle English wanten (“to lack”), from Old Norse vanta (“to lack”), from Proto-Germanic *wanatōną (“to be wanting, lack”), from *wanô (“lack, deficiency”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty”). Cognate with Middle High German wan (“not full, empty”), Middle Dutch wan (“empty, poor”), Old English wana (“want, lack, absence, deficiency”), Latin vanus (“empty”). See wan, wan-.
verb
want (third-person singular simple present wants, present participle wanting, simple past and past participle wanted)
(transitive) To wish for or desire (something); to feel a need or desire for; to crave or demand. [from 18th c.]
(transitive, in particular) To wish, desire, or demand to see, have the presence of or do business with.
(intransitive) To desire (to experience desire); to wish.
(colloquial, usually second person, often future tense) To be advised to do something (compare should, ought).
(transitive, now colloquial) To lack and be in need of or require (something, such as a noun or verbal noun). [from 15th c.]
(transitive, now rare) To have occasion for (something requisite or useful); to require or need.
(intransitive, dated) To be lacking or deficient or absent. [from 13th c.]
(intransitive, dated) To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack.
(transitive, archaic) To lack and be without, to not have (something). [from 13th c.]
(transitive, obsolete, by extension) To lack and perhaps be able or willing to do without.
To desire a romantic or (especially) sexual relationship with someone; to lust for.
Examples
What do you want to eat? I want you to leave. I never wanted to go back to live with my mother.
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.
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.
I want to find a supermarket. — Oh, okay. The supermarket is at 1500 Irving Street. It is near the apartment. — Great! Audio
Audio
The game developers of Candy Crush want you to waste large, copious amounts of your money on in-game purchases to buy boosters and lives.
Depression wants you to feel like the world is dark and that you are not worthy of happiness. The first step to making your life better from this day forward is to stop believing these lies.
Ma’am, you are exactly the professional we want for this job.
Danish police want him for embezzlement.
But now it's different, if the police want him for murder.
You can leave if you want.
TYRION: You don't want it?
BRAN: I don't really want anymore.
You’ll want to repeat this three or four times to get the best result.
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.
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 ...
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.
“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.
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.
That chair wants fixing.
Man wants but little, nor that little long.
Man wants but little here below, nor wants that little long.
[F]or my greatest skill has been to want but little.
There was something wanting in the play.
They of the Citie fought valiantly with Engines, Darts, Arrows: and when Stones wanted, they threw Silver, especially molten silver.
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.
For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find / What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind.
You have a gift, sir , / Will never let you want.
The paupers desperately want.
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.
I observed […] that your whip wanted a lash to it.The spelling has been modernized.
The spelling has been modernized.
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.
Not what we wish, but what we want, / Oh, let thy grace supply!
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.
She wanted anything she needed.
[…] 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.
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!"
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, ...
"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...
Dang, girl! Your brother is gorgeous! I want him so bad!
Yeah, you're loo- lookin' at me like I'm some sweet escape / Obvious that you want me, but I said...
Related words
synonyms
(desire): set one's heart on, wish for, would like
(not to have): lack, be without
(require): need, be in need of
noun
want (countable and uncountable, plural wants)
(countable) A desire, wish, longing.
(countable, often followed by of) Lack, absence, deficiency.
(uncountable) Poverty.
Something needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt.
(UK, mining) A depression in coal strata, hollowed out before the subsequent deposition took place.
Examples
She showed a want of caution in renting her house to complete strangers.
[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.
They are wet with the showres of the mountaines, and imbrace the rocke for want of a shelter.
Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want.
Habitual superfluities become actual wants.
Etimology
From Middle English wont (“mole”), from Old English wand, wond, from Proto-Germanic *wanduz.
noun
want (plural wants)
(dialectal) A mole (Talpa europea).
Examples
Lic. She hath the ears of a want. / Pec. Doth she want ears?