YEARN, YERN, v.i. G. The sense is to strain, or stretch forward. We have earnest from the same root.

1. To be strained; to be pained or distressed; to suffer.

Falstaff, he is dead, and we must yearn therefore.

2. Usually, to long; to feel an earnest desire; that is literally, to have a desire or inclination stretching towards the object or end. 1 Kings 3.

Joseph made haste, for his bowels did yearn upon his brother. Genesis 43.

Your mothers heart yearns toward you.

--Anticlus, unable to control, spoke loud the language of his yearning soul.

YEARN, YERN, v.t. To pain; to grieve; to vex.

She laments for it, that it would yearn your heart to see it.

It yearns me not if men my garments wear.