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want: (1 the commonest S. sense; 3 cf. LESS ∥)
1. to be without, lack Tp. III. iii. 38 “they want the use of tongue,” John IV. i. 99 “the utterance of a brace of tongues Must needs want pleading for a pair of eyes” (=be insufficient to plead), R3 V. iii. 13, Cor. I. iii. 90 “'Tis not . . . that I want love,” Lucr. 389 “to want” (=at missing), Sonn. xxiv. 13 “eyes this cunning want to grace their art” ; also intr. with “of” Rom. II. ii. 78 “wanting of thy love.”
2. to be lacking, =LACK 1 Gent. I. ii. 92 “There wanteth but a mean to fill your song,” LLL. IV. iii. 237 “Where nothing wants that want itself doth seek,” Lr. IV. vi. 270 “if your will want not.”
3. with a negative, used in a sense the reverse of what is intended Mac. III. vi. 8 “Who cannot want the thought . . .?” (=Who can help thinking . . .?).
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