"for want of" meaning in English

See for want of in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Preposition

Rhymes: -ʌv Head templates: {{head|en|prepositions|head=}} for want of, {{en-prep}} for want of
  1. Because of the absence of. Synonyms: for lack of, for the want of Translations (Translations): укеште (ukešte) (Eastern Mari), faute de (French), à défaut de (French), z braku (Polish)

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for for want of meaning in English (2.3kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositions",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "for want of",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "for want of",
      "name": "en-prep"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English prepositions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with collocations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with collocations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Finnish links with redundant wikilinks",
          "parents": [
            "Links with redundant wikilinks",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "for want of a better word",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "a. 1640, For Want of a Nail",
          "text": "For want of a nail the shoe was lost.\nFor want of a shoe the horse was lost.\nFor want of a horse the rider was lost.\nFor want of a rider the battle was lost.\nFor want of a battle the kingdom was lost.\nAnd all for the want of a horseshoe nail."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 August 10, Dr Mike Esbester, “New understandings from old incidents”, in RAIL, number 963, page 58",
          "text": "In April 1923, he was working with a gang of five others in Glasgow on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). They were told to walk in the cess. But as it wasn't clear, they walked on the sleepers, each carrying a 70lb lifting screw on his shoulder. McGuinness was struck by a train and killed for want of a safe path.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Because of the absence of."
      ],
      "id": "en-for_want_of-en-prep-iTNcceVM",
      "links": [
        [
          "absence",
          "absence"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "for lack of"
        },
        {
          "word": "for the want of"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "note": "puutteessa (genitive + postposition)",
          "sense": "Translations"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "faute de"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "à défaut de"
        },
        {
          "code": "mhr",
          "lang": "Eastern Mari",
          "roman": "ukešte",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "укеште"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "z braku"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌv"
    }
  ],
  "word": "for want of"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositions",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "for want of",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "for want of",
      "name": "en-prep"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English prepositions",
        "English terms with collocations",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Finnish links with redundant wikilinks",
        "Rhymes:English/ʌv",
        "Rhymes:English/ʌv/3 syllables",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "for want of a better word",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "a. 1640, For Want of a Nail",
          "text": "For want of a nail the shoe was lost.\nFor want of a shoe the horse was lost.\nFor want of a horse the rider was lost.\nFor want of a rider the battle was lost.\nFor want of a battle the kingdom was lost.\nAnd all for the want of a horseshoe nail."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 August 10, Dr Mike Esbester, “New understandings from old incidents”, in RAIL, number 963, page 58",
          "text": "In April 1923, he was working with a gang of five others in Glasgow on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). They were told to walk in the cess. But as it wasn't clear, they walked on the sleepers, each carrying a 70lb lifting screw on his shoulder. McGuinness was struck by a train and killed for want of a safe path.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Because of the absence of."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "absence",
          "absence"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "for lack of"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌv"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "for the want of"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "note": "puutteessa (genitive + postposition)",
      "sense": "Translations"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "faute de"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "à défaut de"
    },
    {
      "code": "mhr",
      "lang": "Eastern Mari",
      "roman": "ukešte",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "укеште"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "z braku"
    }
  ],
  "word": "for want of"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.