Fain in a Sentence – 36 Real Example Sentences

Definition of Fain

fain (adverb) - with joy; gladly; -- with <ex>wold</ex>

How can fain be used in a sentence?

Martin listened and fain would have rubbed his eyes.
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"I fain would dwell in Devon now, forever in my place."
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But when spring goes, and winter blows, my lassie you'll be fain.
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Before we'll part, I'll wage a croon, she's fain to follow it yet.
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I think it's a brillian ASBO cartoon as are most of them, but ... "fain?"
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Sooth Pacific: "Verily, whenas there be a dame, fain would there be nought like it."
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He, too, had fain been the father of her children, and many skins has he cured thereto.
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Eachin listened, with a look as if he would fain have believed the words of the comforter.
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This I fain would learn, the way thou didst escape; and after that I will ask thee of the rest.
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Thou art right to scorn and blame such friends; yet welcome those who fain would help the state.
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It would but anger thee to hear what I intend, and so I fain would keep thee ignorant, my father.
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"Why do you not draw back your garment's hem?" she was fain to cry out, all in that flashing, dazzling second.
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For I would fain know what substance exists, that has not something in it which manifestly baffles our understandings.
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I would fain ask such stupid people whether by beating a boy they would teach him to read without showing him the alphabet.
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Nibble a little-something to get me through the day and fain the mixed part of my marriage by opting out, hall pass in hand.
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[56] Morris became so intolerant of French vocables that he detested and would "fain" have eschewed the very word literature.
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It skills not talking, least of all to thee, Oliver Proudfute, who, if thou art not such a one as himself, would fain be thought so.
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I tell thee, Conachar is nothing to her, but so far as she would fain prevent the devil having his due of him, as of other Highlandmen.
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I would have fain rubbed my eyes and looked again, for, as far as I could see, the rocks bordering upon the ocean were covered with seals.
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I am fain to leave a walled house, and, better still, to get outside of the walls within and join the city in friendship and let the city join me.
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And beyond his star-gazing, in his far-imagined heavens, Valkyrie or houri, man has fain made place for her, for he could see no heaven without her.
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It sometimes happens that when some ancient lips are presented I would fain pass them by unkissed, but when I start in I have to take it as it comes.
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You made a very good speech, Agathon, replied Socrates; but there is yet one small question which I would fain ask: - Is not the good also the beautiful?
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I fell into the snare, spoke freely, and, as he argued gently, as one who would fain be convinced, I even spoke warmly in defence of what I believed devoutly.
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The knight just turned his eye on the ghastly spectacle, and uttered, under the pressure of bodily pain or mental agony, a groan which he would fain have repressed.
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Come, let me veil my head in darkness; for I am ashamed of the evil I have done, and, since for these I have incurred fresh blood-guiltiness, I would fain not harm the innocent.
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There was something else which she would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion seized her and choked her words.
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They came on steadily, and some of us would fain have shot at them; but it was strictly forbidden, and we were obliged to remain motionless, sheltering ourselves behind the battlement as we best might.
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I would fain have flung myself on my knees; but the doctor, leaving the patient to the young lady and the servant, who wheeled forward his chair, and were replacing him in it, hurried me out of the room.
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When he reached London Bridge, the only available crossing, Pepys found the wooden barriers on either side had been torn away in the storm, "so that we were fain to stoop very low for fear of blowing off of the bridge."
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Prince raised himself as high as his fetters permitted; a red glare, against which he was fain to shut his eyes, streamed through the vault; and when he opened them again, it was on the ghastly form of one whom he had reason to think dead.
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I wish it had been vouchsafed me to be by when your spirit of a sudden grew willing to bestow itself without question or let or hope of return, when the self broke up and grew fain to beat out your strength in praise and service for the woman who was soaring high in the blue wastes.
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Of noble parents was I born, the daughter of Night, sprung from the blood of Uranus; and these prerogatives I hold, not to use them in anger against friends, nor have I any joy in visiting the homes of men; and fain would I counsel Hera, before I see her err, and thee too, if ye will hearken to my words.
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The greatest part of our knowledge depends upon deductions and intermediate ideas: and in those cases where we are fain to substitute assent instead of knowledge, and take propositions for true, without being certain they are so, we have need to find out, examine, and compare the grounds of their probability.
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Could they be other than the insidious whispers of the bad angel, who would fain have persuaded the struggling woman, as yet only half his victim, that the outward guise of purity was but a lie, and that, if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom besides Hester Prynne's?
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Ah! right hand, how fain wouldst thou wield the spear, but thy weakness is a death-blow to thy fond desire; for then had I stopped thee calling me slave, and I would have governed Thebes, wherein thou art now exulting, with credit; for city sick with dissension and evil counsels thinketh not aright; otherwise it would never have accepted thee as its master.
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Tips for Using fain in a Sentence

You may have an easier time writing sentences with fain if you know what words are likely to come before or after it, or simply what words are often found in the same sentence.

Frequent Predecessors

Words that often come before fain in sentences. For example: "would fain" or "was fain"

would
was
were
and
are
is
am
be
he
been

Frequent Successors

Words that often come after fain in sentences. For example: "fain to" or "fain have"

to
have
would
be
know
hope
see
.
believe
make

Associated Words

Words that aren't necessarily predecessors or successors, but are often found in the same sentence.

tuatara
bushmaster
chickpea
godiva
impala
calamity
huntsman
bearded
powerless
webster

Alternate Definitions

fain (verb) - to be glad ; to wish or desire
fain (adjective) - well-pleased; glad; apt; wont; fond; inclined
fain (adjective) - satisfied; contented; also, constrained