Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To feel a lingering, often nostalgic desire.
  • intransitive verb To wither or waste away from longing or grief.
  • intransitive verb To grieve or mourn for.
  • noun Intense longing or grief.
  • noun Any of various evergreen trees of the genus Pinus, having fascicles of needle-shaped leaves and producing woody seed-bearing cones. These trees are widely cultivated for ornament and shade and for their timber and resinous sap, which yields turpentine and pine tar.
  • noun Any of various other coniferous trees, such as the Norfolk Island pine.
  • noun The wood of any of these trees.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To pain; afflict; torture; starve; wear out or consume, as with sickness, pain, or grief.
  • To grieve for; bemoan; bewail.
  • To be consumed with grief or longing; grow thin or waste away with pain, sorrow, or longing; languish: often with away: as, she pined away and died.
  • To long; languish with longing desire: usually with for before the object of desire.
  • To shrink or “render,” as fish in the process of curing.
  • noun Same as foxtail-pine (which see, under pine).
  • noun See black pine .
  • noun Same as stone-pine in any of the senses.
  • noun Same as table-mountain pine (which see, under pine).
  • noun In New South Wales, a variety of Callitris robusta. See black pine .
  • noun A low tree, Pinus contorta, ranging along the Pacific coast from Alaska to northern California and to some extent inland. It has either a compact round head or an open picturesque one which has given rise to the name twisted pine. It seems to grade into the lodge-pole pine. The saccharine cambium is eaten by the Indians. Also coast scrub-pine.
  • noun Same as slash-pine. Also she pitch-pine.
  • noun Same as slash-pine.
  • noun The loblolly-pine.
  • noun In the Bahamas, a species of air-plant, Tillandsia Balbisiana. Compare wild pine , under wild.
  • noun Pain; torment; anguish; misery; suffering; wretchedness.
  • noun The black-headed gull, Chroïcocephalus ridibundus. Also pinemaw.
  • noun Any tree of the genus Pinus.
  • noun One of various other coniferous trees, as the Moreton Bay pine and the Oregon pine (see below); also, one of a few small plants suggesting the pine. See ground-pine.
  • noun The wood of any pine-tree.
  • noun The pineapple.
  • noun Same as Austrian pine.
  • noun Same as bull-pine .
  • noun Same as miro.
  • noun Same as digger-pine.
  • noun Same as yellow pine .
  • noun Same as yellow pine .
  • noun See white pine .
  • noun In England, the long-leafed pine, or its imported wood.
  • noun See celery-pine.
  • noun See Chimaphila.
  • noun See Dacrydium.
  • noun The Swiss stone-pine, or arolla, Pinus Cembra, a middle-sized tree with fragrant and resinous, very fine-grained soft wood, much used for carving and cabinet-work. The seeds are edible, and abound in oil. It yields a turpentine called Carpathian balsam.
  • noun The Siberian stone-pine, Pinus Cembra, var.
  • noun Pinus monticola, a large species of the western United States, not very common, but in Idaho an important timber-tree.
  • noun The cedar-pine.
  • noun The Rocky Mountain species Pinus reflexa, of Arizona, and P. flexilis, which serves for lumber in Nevada, where better is wanting.
  • noun Same as kahikatea.
  • noun The long-leafed pine.
  • noun An important species, Pinus ponderosa, found in the Black Hills, and from British Columbia, through the Pacific region, to Texas and Mexico: within its range the most valuable timber-tree after the Oregon pine. It sometimes approaches 300 feet in height, but is commonly much lower, especially in the Rocky Mountains. Its heavy, hard, and strong, but not durable, timber furnishes lumber, railway-ties, etc. Also called bull-pine, silver-pine.
  • noun Pinus Arizonica, a species of minor importance in the mountains of Arizona.
  • noun A commercial name of the common white pine. (See also ground-pine, heavy-pine, hoop-pine, huon-pine, kauri-pine, knee-pine, loblolly-pine, and slash-pine.)

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Woe; torment; pain.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pinen, from pine, suffering, from Old English pīne, punishment, torment, from Vulgar Latin *pēna, variant of Latin poena, penalty, from Greek poinē; see kwei- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English pīn, from Latin pīnus; see peiə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin pīnus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English pinian ("torment"), from *pine “pain”, possibly from Latin poena ("punishment"), from Ancient Greek ποινή (poinē, "penalty, fine, bloodmoney"). Cognate to pain.

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Examples

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  • The rose upon my balcony the morning air perfuming,

    Was leafless all the winter time and pining for the spring.

    (William Makepeace Thackeray)

    September 11, 2008