Nothing is wanting...

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,
Here is the entry of “entreaty” I came across on thefreedictionary.com:

=> I find the phrase “Nothing is wanting” here so strange. Could you please clarify for me?

Many thanks in advance
Nessie

2

noun: a specific feeling of desire
noun: the state of needing something that is absent or unavailable (Example: “For want of a nail the shoe was lost”)

Nothing is wanting but to have you here = The only thing we want is to have you here

3

I have a feeling that ‘wanting’ here is a kind of adjective and ‘nothing is wanting’ is close to ‘nothing is lacking’ and not strange.

BTW, just out of curiosity, it seems to me that in this particular case ‘wanting’ and ‘wanted’ could become ‘synonyms’:

Nothing is wanting but to have you here.
Nothing is wanted but to have you here.

That’s one reason why I am hypnotized by English for its unstiffness and kaleidoscope.

Haihao

4

.
You’re right, Haihao. :smiley: You might also say that ‘wanting’ in that expression means ‘missing’.

I might reword this way:
Nothing is wanting but to have you here = There is nothing (else) that I want except to have you here.
.

5

Thank you so very much, Amy. Your rewording convinced me completely. :slight_smile:

Haihao

6

“we/they/it want/s for nothing” and “regarding us/them/it, etc., nothing is wanting” = we/they/it have/has all we/they/it, etc. need/s

Nothing is wanting but to have you here = we have all we need but/except/apart from you being here

7

Many thanks to you all.
Actually, if it were “nothing is wanted…” or “nothing is missing…”, it would be quite easy to understand. I just find “nothing is wanting…” here so strange because this is the first time I see the syntax

I just want to ask one more question: Is this syntax correct in formal English or is it informal? And could you please tell me some other of verbs that are used this way?
Thank you very much
Nessie

8

Hi Nessie

The word ‘wanting’ is used as an adjective in your sentence.
‘Nothing is wanting’ is basically the same structure as ‘nothing is interesting’.

‘Nothing is wanting’ is fairly formal.

Using ‘want’ as a verb, you could say ‘She wants for nothing’.
.

9

I’d say it’s quite formal and a little dated, for some.

10

Not another verb; but another idiom with “wanting”, from the Times:

  1. Carlo Cudicini and Hilário were found wanting when called on to fill in last season for Cech.

i.e. “(the reserve goalkeepers) CC and H. were found to be deficient in quality, when required to take the place of Cech (the first-choice goalkeeper) last season”.

(If you are “found wanting in X”, your deficiency in the quality X is revealed.)

MrP

11

Here’s another:

It had always distressed him that the West and the Eastern bloc could both budget so generously for what he considered to be the evils of the nuclear industry while millions in the Third World were left wanting for food.

Death train. MacNeill, Alastair. London: Fontana Press, 1989.

And there’s also:

nothing is lacking