Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Language: Old English
Origin: sican

sigh

1 verb
     
sigh1 [intransitive]
1 to breathe in and out making a long sound, especially because you are bored, disappointed, tired etc:
'Well, there's nothing we can do about it now,' she sighed.
sigh heavily/deeply
Frankie stared out of the window and sighed deeply.
sigh with
He sighed with despair at the thought of all the opportunities he had missed.
2 literary if the wind sighs, it makes a long sound like someone sighing:
The wind sighed in the trees.
3

sigh for something

to be sad because you are thinking about a pleasant time in the past:
Emilia sighed for her lost youth.
WORD FOCUS: breathe WORD FOCUS: breathe
to breathe in: inhale formal
to breathe out: exhale formal
to breathe noisily: sniff, snore (when sleeping)
snort, sigh
to breathe with difficulty: gasp, pant, wheeze, be short of breath, be out of breath
to be unable to breathe: choke, suffocatebreathe

➔ See also breathe
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
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