Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb Happily; gladly.
- adjective Ready; willing.
- adjective Pleased; happy.
- adjective Obliged or required.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Glad; pleased; rejoiced: used absolutely or followed by an infinitive: as, I am fain to see you.
- Glad, in a relative sense; content or willing to accept an alternative to something better but unattainable: followed by an infinitive: as, he was fain to run away.
- To be fain; be glad; rejoice.
- To fawn. See
fawn , verb - To fill with gladness; cause to rejoice.
- To wish; desire; long.
- To acquiesce in; accept with reluctance, as an alternative.
- An obsolete spelling of
feign (retained in the derivative faint). - Gladly; with pleasure or content: with would.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb With joy; gladly; -- with
wold . - adjective Well-pleased; glad; apt; wont; fond; inclined.
- adjective Satisfied; contented; also, constrained.
- verb obsolete To be glad ; to wish or desire.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective archaic Well-pleased;
glad ;apt ;wont ;fond ;inclined . - adjective archaic
Satisfied ;contented . - adverb archaic With
joy ;gladly . - verb archaic To be
delighted orglad ; torejoice - verb archaic To
gladden
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb in a willing manner
- adjective having made preparations
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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[56] Morris became so intolerant of French vocables that he detested and would "fain" have eschewed the very word literature.
A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century 1886
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No, I could not "fain," as she did; but I glanced at my watch as I rose from the table, and found that it wanted a quarter of eight.
Sea-Gift. A Novel. Edwin Wiley 1873
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He, too, had fain been the father of her children, and many skins has he cured thereto.
The Son of the Wolf 2010
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"Why do you not draw back your garment's hem?" she was fain to cry out, all in that flashing, dazzling second.
THE SCORN OF WOMEN 2010
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Martin listened and fain would have rubbed his eyes.
Chapter 36 2010
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I am fain to leave a walled house, and, better still, to get outside of the walls within and join the city in friendship and let the city join me.
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I wish it had been vouchsafed me to be by when your spirit of a sudden grew willing to bestow itself without question or let or hope of return, when the self broke up and grew fain to beat out your strength in praise and service for the woman who was soaring high in the blue wastes.
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I would have fain rubbed my eyes and looked again, for, as far as I could see, the rocks bordering upon the ocean were covered with seals.
Chapter 19 2010
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He, too, had fain been the father of her children, and many skins has he cured thereto.
The Sun of the Wolf 2010
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I would have fain rubbed my eyes and looked again, for, as far as I could see, the rocks bordering upon the ocean were covered with seals.
Chapter 19 2010
bilby commented on the word fain
See mouth-honour.
December 16, 2007
bilby commented on the word fain
"What differs scraping misery from a false cheater? the director of both is covetousness and the end game. Lastly, courting of a mistress and buying of a whore are somewhat like—the end is luxury. Perhaps the one speaks more finely but they both mean plainly. I have been thus seeking differences, and to distinguish of places I am fain to fly to the sign of an alehouse and to the stately coming in of greater houses. For men, titles and clothes, not their lives and actions, help me. So were they all naked and banished from the Heralds’ books. They are without any evidence of pre-eminence, and their souls cannot defend them from community."
- William Cornwallis, 'Of alehouses', 1600.
November 28, 2008
sarra commented on the word fain
file under 'words I had completely the wrong idea about for years upon years' (along with prodigal, etc)
November 29, 2009