yen

noun

1. The unit of Japanese currency (symbol: ¥) since 1871, divided into 100 sen.

   “Passing by those clauses of it which demand no notice, we arrive at that which provides that "each proposal (for purchase) must state the price per picul of rice in gold yen." But why in gold yen, a coin as yet so scarce as to be almost beyond the ken of the foreign merchant?”

   “Does any one however believe that Japan's glorious achievements would have been possible, if the Government of that country had merely poured money like water on its standing battalions, unaugmented by reserves, and the magnificent spirit of every man, woman and child in that country had not been behind the Army to support it? Japan's ordinary budget for the Army is only about 37.3 millions yen, or a little under six crores of rupees.”

   “Taking the cue from his neighbours, Paul fed three 1000 yen notes into a machine beside the TV screen and the silent screen immediately exploded into a kaleidoscope of colours and instructions in Japanese below at least twenty pictures of sexy girls. […] Paul hesitated staring intently at the screen and the waiting girl while the 3,000 yen he had fed into the machine steadily dwindled at the rate of 50 yen a minute.”

   “Micron said in a statement that it would bring extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology to Japan, becoming the first semiconductor company to do so, and expected to invest up to 500 billion yen ($3.6 billion) with support from the Japanese government.”

2. A coin or note worth one yen.

   “When banks lend, they create money out of nothing, without withdrawing it from other parts of the economy. This way, fiscal policy would not have crowded out private-sector activity yen by yen, as actually happened.”

3. A strong desire, urge, or yearning.

   “humankind's yen for knowledge”

   “She repeated the words: "You for me and me for you," then hummed: "Two for tea and tea for two …" Her voice trailed off … "All I got is a yen for Diana and my sweet little cute little Zigzag."”

   “Like most middle-westerners, I have never had any but the vaguest race prejudices—I always had a secret yen for the lovely Scandinavian blondes who sat on porches in St. Paul but hadn’t emerged enough economically to be part of what was then society.”

   “And Clocklan with a nurse for sure again. Always with nurses. Always with blonde hair. His maid has black and I guess he thrives on variety. And over there are some elderly ones with diamonds on their chests in lieu of the other things. Sometimes have a yen to get one of them in bed. Old age no object.”

   “If a fellow chooses to tell himself that his yen for the fetching young intern in his office and his concomitant disgruntlement with his aging wife's housekeeping lacunae make perfect Darwinian sense, who am I to argue with him?”

4. (slang, uncountable)Opium.

verb

1. (transitive)To have a strong desire for.

   “Yenning, groaning, longing after.”

   “"Listen, I'm in Tom Bleutcher's suite at The Brompton House. Been here the whole Almighty morning. Olga wants you to have lunch with us." / "Olga? Who's she?" / "His daughter. You made a big hit with her last time they was in town. Come on down." / "Get the new writer." / "I got no new writer. Anyway she yens for you. Come on down."”

   “C. S. Lewis warned, "The yen to publish is spiritually dangerous." The "yen" in this case is spread around, so perhaps the danger is diminished! This book has been "yenned" into existence by many, and is a two-team effort ….”

name

1. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of Yan (ancient kingdom)

   “9. Kingdom of Yen 燕 Táking situated in lat. 39° 54' N., long. 116° 28' E., one of the districts of Shuntien fú in Chihlí, now occupies the site of the capital of the ancient kingdom of Yen, the most northern part of the empire under the reign of the Chau dynasty.”

   “At that time, twenty-two centuries ago, a gentleman named Ching K'o was getting scandalously drunk in the market place of the capital of Yen, a feudal state in northwest China which owed nominal allegiance to the Son of Heaven (i.e., the emperor) though, in fact, there was no unified Chinese state.”

   “In 284 B.C., near the end of the Era of the Warring States, the state of Yen seized all but two of the more than 70 cities of the state of Ch'i. For five years, the loyal people of Ch'i defended those cities, namely, Chu and Chi-mo, against Yen's troops.”

   “The remaining major kingdoms (Han, Ch'u, Chao, Yen and Ch'i) searched for a means to stop the aggressive Ch'in, who appeared to have more in common with the Hsiung-nu than with the Chinese. The solution seemed to appear in the kingdom of Yen with the arrival of Ching K’o in 237.”