What does "wan" mean?
Wan: Won. Chaucer.
Additional senses
- 2.Having a pale or sickly hue; languid of look; pale; pallid. "Sad to view, his visage pale and wan." Spenser. My color . . . [is] wan and of a leaden hue. Chaucer. Why so pale and wan, fond lover Suckling. With the wan moon overhead. Longfellow.
- 3.The quality of being wan; wanness. [R.] Tinged with wan from lack of sleep. Tennyson.
- 4.To grow wan; to become pale or sickly in looks. "All his visage wanned." Shak. And ever he mutter'd and madden'd, and ever wann'd with despair. Tennyson.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00