Edit page | Page history | Printable version

weep

1. Formerly, to express sorrow, grief, or anguish, by outcry, or by other manifest signs; in modern use, to show grief or other passions by shedding tears; to shed tears; to cry. To lament; to bewail; to bemoan. I weep bitterly the dead. We wandering go through dreary wastes, and weep each other's woe. (pope)

2. To shed, or pour forth, as tears; to shed drop by drop, as if tears; as, to weep tears of joy. Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth. (milton) Groves whose rich trees wept odourous gums and balm. (Milton)

3. (Science: zoology) The lapwing; the wipe; so called from its cry.

Origin: OE. Wepen, AS. Wpan, from wp lamentation; akin to OFries. Wpa to lament, OS. Wp lamentation, OHG. Wuof, Icel. P a shouting, crying, OS. Wpian to lament, OHG. Wuoffan, wuoffen, Icel. Pa, Goth. Wpjan.