sigh

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But I could see nothing save green leaves; and started again and drew back a little a few minutes later, as the sigh was again repeated, this time followed by a faint whisper, and I heard my name Frank--Frank Burr.

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Definitions (19)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. intransitive verb To exhale audibly in a long deep breath, as in weariness or relief.
  2. intransitive verb To emit a similar sound: willows sighing in the wind.
  3. intransitive verb To feel longing or grief; yearn: sighing for their lost youth.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples

  • But I could see nothing save green leaves; and started again and drew back a little a few minutes later, as the sigh was again repeated, this time followed by a faint whisper, and I heard my name Frank--Frank Burr. —  Burr Junior
  • For a sigh is a whisper of sorrow, no matter what breast may have heaved it, and pain is a pall, thick and heavy, laid over hopes that are dead Some of us have strange lives! —  The Doctor's Daughter
  • For a sigh is a whisper of sorrow, no matter what breast may have heaved it, and pain is a pall, thick and heavy, laid over hopes that are dead. —  The Doctor's Daughter
  • But I could see nothing save green leaves; and started again and drew back a little a few minutes later, as the sigh was again repeated, this time followed by a faint whisper, and —  Burr Junior
  • Oh, my heart! what a sigh was there! —  The Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-54
 

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Sigh has been looked up 594 times, favorited twice, listed 37 times, and commented on 15 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

groan ·  whisper ·  laugh ·  cry ·  gesture ·  breath ·  wail ·  tear ·  chuckle ·  shrug ·  sob ·  shake
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English sighen, probably back-formation from sighte, past tense of siken, to sigh, from Old English sīcan.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English sighen, syghen, siʒen (preterit siʒede, siʒhede, sighte. syghte; sicht), variant of siken, syken (preterit sikede, sykede, syked), from Anglo-Saxon sīcan, sy¯can (preterit *sāc. past participle *sicen); cf. freq. sīcetan, sīcettan, siccettan, siccitan, sigh, sob (later Middle English *sihten, sigh, siht, a sigh); Swedish sucka =Danish sukke, sigh, groan; prob. ult. imitative.
  2. from Middle English sygh. variant of sike, sik (cf. Swedish suck =Danish suk); from sigh, v.
 

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/sai/
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