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Webster 1913 Edition

Wan

Wan

,
obs.
imp.
of
Win
.
Won.
Chaucer.

Wan

,
Adj.
[AS.
wann
,
wonn
,
wan
,
won
, dark, lurid, livid, perhaps originally, worn out by toil, from
winnan
to labor, strive. See
Win
.]
Having a pale or sickly hue; languid of look; pale; pallid.
“Sad to view, his visage pale and wan.”
Spenser.
My color . . . [is]
wan
and of a leaden hue.
Chaucer.
Why so pale and
wan
, fond lover?
Suckling.
With the
wan
moon overhead.
Longfellow.

Wan

,
Noun.
The quality of being wan; wanness.
[R.]
Tinged with
wan
from lack of sleep.
Tennyson.

Wan

,
Verb.
I.
To grow wan; to become pale or sickly in looks.
“All his visage wanned.”
Shak.
And ever he mutter’d and madden'd, and ever
wann'd
with despair.
Tennyson.

Webster 1828 Edition

Wan

WAN

,
Adj.
Pale; having a sickly hue; languid of look.
Sad to view, his visage pale and wan.
Why so pale and wan, fond lover?

WAN

, for won; pret. of win.

Definition 2024

wan

wan

See also: WAN, wán, wàn, wān, wǎn, wan-, -wan, and Appendix:Variations of "wan"

English

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -ɒn

Adjective

wan ‎(comparative wanner, superlative wannest)

  1. Pale, sickly-looking.
    • Spenser
      Sad to view, his visage pale and wan.
    • Longfellow
      the wan moon overhead
    • 1921, Edgar Rice Burrows, The Efficiency Expert, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2012:
      She looked wan and worried, ...
  2. Dim, faint.
    • 1909, Robert W. Service, “The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike”, in Ballads of a Cheechako:
      ’twas so far away, that evil day when I prayed to the Prince of Gloom / For the savage strength and the sullen length of life to work his doom. / Nor sign nor word had I seen or heard, and it happed so long ago; / My youth was gone and my memory wan, and I willed it even so.
  3. Bland, uninterested.
    A wan expression
Synonyms
  • (sickly pale): See also Wikisaurus:pallid
Translations

Noun

wan ‎(uncountable)

  1. The quality of being wan; wanness.
    • Tennyson
      Tinged with wan from lack of sleep.

Etymology 2

Eye dialect spelling of one. Sense extended possibly as a result of the phrase your wan as a counterpart to your man.

Noun

wan ‎(plural wans)

  1. Eye dialect spelling of one, representing Ireland English.
  2. (Ireland) girl or woman
    • 2011, David McWilliams, The Pope's Children: The Irish Economic Triumph and the Rise of Ireland's New Elite, John Wiley & Sons (ISBN 9781118045374), page 4
      The young wans, despite a couple of babies, were more or less the same, pinched, flat-chested and drawn.
    • 2013, Elaine Crowley, The Ways Of Women, Hachette UK (ISBN 9781409149149)
      Then I'd tell myself there were plenty of oul wans and oul fellas in work who never got it and that I'd be lucky like them and escape. Only I didn't. I don't want to die.
    • 2015, Kevin Maher, Last Night on Earth, Hachette UK (ISBN 9781408705094)
      ... and they're from different enemy tribes of lads and wans in silky robes, and when they find out, they have this huge, aerial, acrobatic donnybrook that ends when everyone wraps their silk around each other up in the air, and then lets it all fall

Etymology 3

Inflected forms.

Verb

wan

  1. (obsolete) simple past tense and past participle of win

Anagrams

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -ɑn

Etymology 1

Ultimately from Latin vannus.

Noun

wan f, m ‎(plural wannen, diminutive wannetje n)

  1. winnowing basket

Etymology 2

Verb

wan

  1. first-person singular present indicative of wannen
  2. imperative of wannen

Gothic

Romanization

wan

  1. Romanization of 𐍅𐌰𐌽

Japanese

Romanization

wan

  1. rōmaji reading of わん

Mandarin

Romanization

wan

  1. Nonstandard spelling of wān.
  2. Nonstandard spelling of wán.
  3. Nonstandard spelling of wǎn.
  4. Nonstandard spelling of wàn.

Usage notes

  • English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Nigerian Pidgin

Etymology

From English want.

Verb

wan

  1. want, want to

Noone

Noun

wan ‎(plural boom)

  1. child

References

North Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian winna, which derives from from Proto-Germanic *winnaną.

Verb

wan

  1. (Föhr-Amrum Dialect) to win

Conjugation

Old English

Alternative forms

Verb

wan

  1. third-person singular of winnan
    Grendel wan hwile wið Hroþgar.‎ ― Grendel long fought against Hrothgar. (Beowulf ll. 151-2)

Pipil

Pronunciation

  • (standard) IPA(key): /waŋ/

Relational

-wan

  1. with, in relation to
    Shiwi nuwan wan niweli nimetzilwitia ne nukal yankwik‎
    Come with me and I can show you my new house

Declension

Conjunction

wan

  1. and, but
    Shinechmaka yey pula wan chikwasen tumat‎
    Give me three plantains and six tomatoes
    Nikilwij ma timuitakan yalua wan inte walajsik‎
    I told her/him to meet yesterday but she/he didn't come

Scots

Numeral

wan

  1. (West Central Scots) one.

Sranan Tongo

Etymology 1

From English one.

Number

wan

  1. (cardinal) one

Etymology 2

From English want.

Verb

wan

  1. to want

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English one.

Noun

wan

  1. The number one.
    • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Genesis 1:5 (translation here):
      Tulait em i kolim “De,” na tudak em i kolim “Nait.” Nait i go pinis na moning i kamap. Em i de namba wan.
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Numeral

wan

  1. One. Used with units of measurement and in times: wan aua, wan klok. See also wanpela.

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old English ƿann ‎(“dark, dusky”), from Proto-Germanic *wannaz ‎(“dark, swart”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Old Frisian wann, wonn ‎(“dark”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /wɑn/

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