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WAN

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

Irregular inflected forms: wanned  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation, wanner  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation, wannest  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation, wanning  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A computer network that spans a wider area than does a local area networkplay

Synonyms:

WAN; wide area network

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("WAN" is a kind of...):

computer network ((computer science) a network of computers)

 II. (adjective) 

Comparative and superlative

Comparative: wanner  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation

Superlative: wannest  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking vitality as from weariness or illness or unhappinessplay

Example:

a wan smile

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

unanimated (not animated or enlivened; dull)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Abnormally deficient in color as suggesting physical or emotional distressplay

Example:

her wan face suddenly flushed

Synonyms:

pale; pallid; wan

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

colorless; colourless (weak in color; not colorful)

Derivation:

wanness (unnatural lack of color in the skin (as from bruising or sickness or emotional distress))

Sense 3

Meaning:

(of light) lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feebleplay

Example:

the wan light of dawn

Synonyms:

pale; pallid; sick; wan

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

weak (wanting in physical strength)

 III. (verb) 

Verb forms

Present simple: I / you / we / they wan  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation ... he / she / it wans  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation

Past simple: wanned  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation

Past participle: wanned  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation

-ing form: wanning  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation

Sense 1

Meaning:

Become pale and sicklyplay

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "wan" is one way to...):

come down; sicken (get sick)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Credits

 Context examples: 

Only within the folds of a shroud have I ever seen so wan a face.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I, who knew him well, could tell from his wan cheeks and his restless fingers that he was at his wit’s ends what to do; but no stranger who observed his jaunty bearing, the flecking of his laced handkerchief, the handling of his quizzing glass, or the shooting of his ruffles, would ever have thought that this butterfly creature could have had a care upon earth.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Now you're started on the subject," she answered with a wan smile. "Well,—he told me once he was an Oxford man."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Her wan, scornful mouth smiled and so I drew her up again, closer, this time to my face.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Her grey sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming discontented face.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

As we passed over the dark bridge her wan face fell lazily against my coat's shoulder and the formidable stroke of thirty died away with the reassuring pressure of her hand.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)




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