pine away
Definition
Verb: * To gradually decline in health, strength, or spirit, often due to grief, longing, or a deep sense of loss. It implies a slow wasting away from emotional distress.
Usage
This verb is intransitive and is often used to describe a person's physical and emotional decline over time. It carries a strong sense of melancholy and involuntary suffering. The phrase "pine away for [someone/something]" is common.
Examples
- After her dog went missing, the child pined away, refusing to eat or play.
- He was pining away in his room, heartbroken over the lost opportunity.
- Without hope, the prisoners began to pine away.
Advanced Usage
- To pine away for someone/something: To waste away from longing or yearning for a specific person or thing.
- She pined away for her homeland, dreaming of its mountains every night.
Variants and Related Words
- Pine (verb): To yearn intensely and suffer especially with longing. This is the root verb from which the phrasal verb is derived.
- He pined for a chance to see her again.
- Languish (verb): To lose or lack vitality; to grow weak or feeble. A close synonym, though it can have broader causes (e.g., languishing in jail).
- Waste away (phrasal verb): To become thin and weak, especially due to illness. This focuses more on the physical manifestation.
Synonyms
- Languish
- Waste away
- Fade
- Decline
- Sicken (from grief)
Related Phrasal Verbs
- Waste away: To gradually become thinner and weaker, usually from disease or lack of nourishment.
- The disease caused him to waste away rapidly.
Related Idioms
- Die of a broken heart: To die from grief or severe emotional distress. This is a more extreme and final consequence of pining away.
- Some say the old man died of a broken heart after his wife passed.
Verb
-
lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief
-
After her husband died, she just pined away
-