[f. WANT v. + -ING1.] The condition of being without, or lacking, something; the absence or deficiency of something.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11676. We o water has nu wanting, Vr water purueance es gan.
c. 1380. Wyclif, De Apostasia Cleri, i. Sel. Wks. III. 431. Bodyliche abyte, or wantyng þerof, makiþ not men religiose neyþer apostataes.
a. 1395. Hylton, Scala Perf. (W. de W., 1494), I. lxxxi. What is synne but a wanting or a forberyng of good.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., lxxxvi. Sum [died] soroufully, for wanting of thare makis.
c. 1500. Melusine, xxiv. 179. Woo were to me yf for wantyng of a preu & valyaunt man it shuld retourne in to the paynemes handes.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 126. And take vpon command, what helpe we haue That to your wanting may be ministred.
1637. Sanderson, Serm. (1681), II. 92. If we would … exercise our selves sometimes to fastings and wantings and other hardnesses and austerities.
1680. W. Allen’s Persuas. Pence & Unity, Pref. p. lxxxvi. The Printers wanting of Copy to fill up this sheet, is the only occasion of this Postscript.
1682. Otway, Venice Preserv’d, IV. i. Why was such happiness not given me pure? Why dash’d with cruel wrongs, and bitter wantings?
1883. Whitelaw, Sophocles, Electra, 265. They rule me, and from them comes all I have—My having and my wanting, both are theirs.
