Alexander Schmidt, Shakespeare Lexicon and Quotation Dictionary

Long, vb. 1) to be desirous, to wish; absol.: “a bed that --ing have been sick for,” Meas. II, 4, 103. “quickly, sir; I l.” LLL V, 2, 244. “let me have it, I l.” Wint. I, 2, 101. “he did l. in vain,” H4B II, 3, 14. “vainly --ing,” H8 I, 2, 81. With for: “she --s for morrow,” Lucr. 1571; H5 III, 7, 98. H5 III, 7, 98 “like a child, that --s for every thing that he can come by,” Gent. III, 1, 125. “any --ed for change,” John IV, 2, 8. “--ing for what it had not,” Ant. III, 6, 48. With an inf.: “my heart --s not to groan,” Ven. 785. “I l. to know,” Err. IV, 4, 146; Troil. IV, 1, 31. “I l. to have some chat with her,” Shr. II, 163. “I l. to talk,” All's IV, 5, 109. “--s to enter in,” R2 I, 3, 2. “--ed to be a king,” H6B IV, 9, 5. H6B IV, 9, 5 “I l. to have this young one made a Christian,” H8 V, 3, 179. “I l. to die,” Rom. IV, 1, 66. “I have --ed long to redeliver,” Hml. III, 1, 94. “l. to move,” Cymb. IV, 3, 32. Particularly with to hear, and “to see:” Lucr. 1610; 1698; Tp. V, 311; Shr. Ind. 1, 133; R2 V, 3, 115; H5 I, 1, 98; H6B II, 2, 6; R3 I, 4, 8; Troil. III, 1, 154. Hml. II, 2, 50; Per. V, 3, 56. Merch. II, 9, 99; As I, 2, 149; Wint. I, 2, 34; H6B II, 4, 110; R3 II, 4, 4; III, 4, 97; Troil. IV, 5, 153; Hml. II, 2, 2; Cymb. III, 2, 55; 56; III, 4, 2. With a subordinate clause: “I l. that we were safe and sound aboard,” Err. IV, 4, 154. “I l. till Edward fall by war's mischance,” H6C III, 3, 254.
The gerund as a subst.: “Cytherea a --ing tarriance for Adonis made,” Pilgr. 74 (a stay of yearning love); cf. “to furnish me upon my --ing journey,” Gent. II, 7, 85. “you have saved my --ing,” Tim. I, 1, 261. “I have immortal --ings in me,” Ant. V, 2, 284 (desire of immortality). “quenched of hope, not --ing,” Cymb. V, 5, 196. “we do our --ing stay,” Per. V, 3, 83.
2) to have an appetite for food: “by --ing for that food,” Gent. II, 7, 17. “I l. for grass,” Err. II, 2, 202. “come to my natural taste, now I do wish it, love it, l. for it,” Mids. IV, 1, 180. “he --s to eat the English,” H5 III, 7, 99. “--s for the garbage,” Cymb. I, 6, 50. cf. H8 I, 2, 81.
Especially, to have a preternatural appetite, as sick persons, or women with child: “my love is as a fever, --ing still for that which longer nurseth the disease,” Sonn. 147, 1. “--ing for stewed prunes,” Meas. II, 1, 92. Meas. II, 1, 92 “she --ed to eat adders' heads,” Wint. IV, 4, 267. “for whose sight I have a woman's --ing,” Wint. IV, 4, 267 Troil. III, 3, 237.
3) to be capricious: “effeminate, changeable, --ing and liking,” As III, 2, 431. “our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, more --ing, wavering, sooner lost and worn than women's are,” Tw. II, 4, 35. “nice --ing, slanders, mutability,” Cymb. II, 5, 26.