wanting

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɑntɪŋ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒntɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɒntɪŋ

From Middle English wantyng, wantynge, wantand, equivalent to want +‎ -ing.

wanting (comparative more wanting, superlative most wanting)

1. That wants or desires.
2. Absent or lacking.
   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:

     Already Cæſar
     Has ravaged more than half the Globe, and ſees
     Mankind grown thin by his deſtructive Sword:
     Should he go further, Numbers would be wanting
     To form new Battels, and ſupport his Crimes.

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Modern Library Edition, published 1995, page 171:

     […] but where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.

   • 1902, Proceedings: Entomological papers, volumes 25-26, United States National Museum, page 201:

     Discal black dot small or wanting. Transverse posterior line reduced to two dotlets or altogether wanting.

3. Deficient.
   • 1993, Dana Stabenow, Dead in the Water, →ISBN, page 151:

     Kate felt privileged to have been permitted to speak through it and she was glad that, as before, she had been judged and not found wanting

• find wanting
• wantingly

wanting

1. Without, except, but.
2. Less, short of, minus.

wanting

1. present participle and gerund of want

From Middle English wantyng, wantynge, equivalent to want +‎ -ing.

wanting (countable and uncountable, plural wantings)

1. The state of wanting something; desire.
   • 2004, Joseph H. Casey S.J., Life, Love, and Sex:

     Choice occurs only when we experience a conflict of wantings.