Sigh , n. [OE. sigh; cf. OE. sik. See Sigh, v. i.]
1.
A deep and prolonged audible inspiration or respiration of air, as when
fatigued or grieved; the act of sighing.
I could drive
the boat with my sighs.
Shak. 2. Figuratively, a manifestation of grief; a
lan&?;ent.
With their sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite.
Milton.
Sigh , v. t. 1. To
exhale (the breath) in sighs.
Never man
sighed truer breath.
Shak. 2. To utter sighs over; to lament or
mourn over.
Ages to come, and men unborn,
Shall bless her name, and sigh her fate.
Pior.
3. To express by sighs; to utter in or with sighs.
They . . . sighed forth proverbs.
Shak.
The gentle swain . . . sighs back her grief.
Hoole.
Sigh (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sighed (?);
p. pr. & vb. n.
Sighing.]
[OE. sighen, si&?;en; cf. also OE. siken, AS. sīcan, and OE. sighten, si&?;ten, sichten, AS.
siccettan; all, perhaps, of imitative origin.]
1. To inhale a larger quantity of air than usual, and immediately expel it; to make a deep single
audible respiration,
especially as the result or
involuntary expression of fatigue, exhaustion, grief, sorrow, or the like.
2. Hence, to lament; to grieve.
He sighed deeply in his spirit.
Mark
viii. 12. 3. To make a sound
like sighing.
And the coming wind did roar more
loud,
And the sails did sigh like sedge.
Coleridge.
The winter
winds are wearily sighing.
Tennyson. &fist; An extraordinary pronunciation of this word as
sīth is still heard in England and among the
illiterate in the United States.
Hear it pronounced