From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpine for somebody/something phrasal verb1 if you pine for a place or for something, you miss it a lot and wish you could be there or have it again After two months in France I was pining for home.2 SAD/UNHAPPYif you pine for someone, you feel very unhappy because they are not with you Karen had been pining for her friends back home in Colorado. → pine→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
pine for • Why then do I continue to pine for a drafty bedsitter in rain-soaked Islington?• The Smiths and our time are about pining for a home.• As the days passed, Diana pined for her Prince and yet he never telephoned.• And yet we go on pining for it, and can never stop.• I left my office chair to pine for my speedy return and took myself over to the window.• Yet how he must have pined for recognition from Placide.• Though Dad is awfully good at growing green things, the Little Sprouts pine for something sweeter.• But play it for an hour and you soon start pining for the subtlety and simulation of Evolution. 