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fain - What does it mean?

Definition of 'fain'

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • (label) Well-pleased; glad; apt; wont; fond; inclined.
  • *:
  • *:Thus Gawayne and Ector abode to gyder / For syre Ector wold not awey til Gawayne were hole / & the good kny?t Galahad rode so long tyll he came that nyghte to the Castel of Carboneck / & hit befelle hym thus / that he was benyghted in an hermytage / Soo the good man was fayne whan he sawe he was a knyght erraunt
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:Men and birds are fain of climbing high.
  • *(Jeremy Taylor) (1613–1677)
  • *:To a busy man, temptation is fain to climb up together with his business.
  • *(rfdate) (Dante Gabriel Rossetti), A Death-Parting , line 11
  • *:O love, of my death my life is fain ,
  • *1900 , (Ernest Dowson), To One in Bedlam , lines 9-10
  • *:O lamentable brother! if those pity thee, / Am I not fain of all thy lone eyes promise me;
  • (label) Satisfied; contented.
  • *{{quote-book|year=2004|author=W. Ross Winterowd
    • |title= Searching for Faith: A Skeptic's Journey |publisher=Parlor Press|quotee=(John Donne), Holy Sonnet XIV |isbn=9781932559309|page=29 |passage=Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain ,}}

    Adverb

    (en-adv)
  • (archaic) With joy; gladly.
  • * 1599 ,
    • LEONATO: I would fain know what you have to say.
  • * 1633 , , XIV
    • Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain ,/ But am betroth’d unto your enemy
  • * 1719 ,
    • The second thing I fain would have had was a tobacco-pipe, but it was impossible to me to make one…

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • (archaic) To be delighted or glad; to rejoice
  • (archaic) To gladden

    • References

    Anagrams

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    Similar to 'fain'

    fan, fawn, fun, fin, fen, faun, foon, fon, foin, foehn, feen, faan, faaan