- 1欠缺的、不足的；常見用法 be found wanting＝經考驗後被認為不合格、不夠格。台灣中文很少有對應的單字，通常整句翻成「不夠水準」「有所欠缺」
If something is wanting, it does not have something it needs, or it is not as good as people expected. It is a formal, slightly old-fashioned word, and you meet it most often in a few fixed patterns.
The most common pattern is 'be found wanting'. This means someone or something was tested — by a hard situation, by other people's judgement — and did not pass. 'The safety system was found wanting.' 'When the crisis came, their leadership was found wanting.' Notice that nobody has to actually run a test; life tests you, and you fall short. The phrase carries a quiet disappointment, almost a judgement from above. It sounds like a report, or a serious newspaper, not like friends talking.
The second pattern is 'wanting in something', meaning lacking that quality: 'His answer was wanting in detail.' 'She is not wanting in courage' — a polite double-negative way of saying she has plenty of courage.
There is also a plain use where something is simply missing or not enough: 'Two pages of the report were wanting.' This is quite formal and old; today most people would say 'missing'.
And there is a separate use as a preposition, meaning 'without' or 'minus': 'a fortune wanting only a few dollars'. This one is now rare and mostly lives in older books and legal writing. If you only remember one thing, remember 'found wanting'.
Be careful: this is a different word from the everyday 'wanting' in 'I'm wanting a coffee'. That one is just the -ing form of the verb want. The word here is an adjective and points at what is missing, not at who desires something.
「wanting」是形容詞，形容缺少某樣需要的東西，或沒達到大家的期待。它偏正式、有點老派，最常見的固定用法是「be found wanting」，意思是經過考驗後被認為不夠格，例如「The safety system was found wanting.」，指安全系統經不起考驗。不一定真的要測試，是情況在考驗你。語氣帶著一點失望，像報告或正式新聞，不像朋友聊天。
第二個常見用法是「wanting in ＿＿」，表示缺乏某種特質，例如「His answer was wanting in detail.」，指回答缺少細節。「She is not wanting in courage」則是客氣的雙重否定，意思是她很有勇氣。
還有單純指缺少或不夠的用法，這種說法比較正式、古老，現在多半說 missing。另外有一個介係詞用法，意思是「沒有」或「減去」，現在很少見，多在老書或法律文件裡。最值得記的是「found wanting」。日常說的 want 的 -ing 形式，是想要的意思，和這裡的形容詞是不同的字。
From the word’s history
From Middle English wantyng; want + -ing.
源自中古英文 wantyng，就是 want 加上 -ing。
組成want + -ing. The old meaning of 'want' was 'to lack, to be missing' — not 'to desire'. That older meaning is frozen inside this word: something wanting is something lacking. You can still see it in 'for want of' (= because of a lack of).
同家族的字
- wantsame word; its original sense 'to lack' is what survives in 'wanting'
- wantonlyshares the old want- root meaning 'lacking' — here, lacking discipline
原始詞典資料7 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
wantingadj詞源 1/ˈwɑntɪŋ/
- 1
That wants or desires.
- 2
Absent or lacking.
- Already Cæſar Has ravaged more than half the Globe, and ſees Mankind grown thin by his deſtructive Sword: Should he go further, Numbers would be wanting To form new Battels, and ſupport his Crimes.
- […] but where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.
- 3
Deficient.
- Kate felt privileged to have been permitted to speak through it and she was glad that, as before, she had been judged and not found wanting
wantingprep詞源 1/ˈwɑntɪŋ/
- 1
Without, except, but.
- 2
Less, short of, minus.
wantingnoun詞源 2/ˈwɑntɪŋ/
- 1
The state of wanting something; desire.
- Choice occurs only when we experience a conflict of wantings.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。