Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Sighing \Sigh"ing\, a.
Uttering sighs; grieving; lamenting. ``Sighing millions.''
--Cowper. -- {Sigh"ing*ly}, adv.
Sigh \Sigh\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Sighed}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Sighing}.] [OE. sighen, si?en; cf. also OE. siken, AS.
s[=i]can, 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.
Note: An extraordinary pronunciation of this word as s[=i]th
is still heard in England and among the illiterate in
the United States.