deplore, v.
(dɪˈplɔə(r))
Also 6 Sc. deploir.
[Ultimately ad. L. dēplōrāre to weep bitterly, wail, bewail, deplore, give up as lost, f. de- I. 3 + plōrāre to weep, bewail. Cf. F. déplorer, in OF. desplorer, deplourer, depleurer, It. deplorare, to deplore, bewail (Florio). The Eng. was possibly from F. or It.]
1. trans. To weep for, bewail, lament; to grieve over, regret deeply.
| 1567 Satir. Poems Reform. vii. 75 Quhat duilfull mynde mycht dewlie this deploir? 1591 Spenser Ruines of Time 658 He..left me here his losse for to deplore. 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 77 He was killed by a Musket bullet. He..was much deplored, by the whole Party. 1814 Cary Dante's Inf. xi. 44 He.. must aye deplore With unavailing penitence his crime. 1852 Tennyson Ode Wellington ii, Where shall we lay the man whom we deplore? |
† b. To tell with grief or lamentation. Obs.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. i. 174 Neuer more Will I my Masters teares to you deplore. |
† c. To shed like tears, ‘weep’. Obs. rare.
| 1601 Chester Love's Mart., Dial. lxv, The Turpentine that sweet iuyce doth deplore. |
2. intr. To lament, mourn. Now rare or Obs.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 485 My Muse left to mourne for my Liberty, deplored thus: [verses follow]. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 45 Bid him fulfill the ceremoniall law of deploring for ten dayes. 1776 Mickle tr. Camoens' Lusiad 262 Along the shore The Halcyons, mindful of their fate deplore. |
† 3. trans. To give up as hopeless, to despair of. Obs. rare.
| 1559 [see deplored 2]. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. x. §7 The physicians..do make a kind of scruple and religion to stay with the patient after the disease is deplored. a 1729 Congreve Poems, To Ld. Halifax 29 A true Poetick State we had deplor'd. |
Hence deˈploring vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also deˈploringly adv.
| 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. iii. ii. 85 To their Instruments Tune a deploring dumpe. 1847 Craig, Deploringly. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. xiii, Mr. Fledgeby shook his head deploringly. 1880 G. Meredith Trag. Com. xix. (1892) 256 As little was he the vanished God whom his working people hailed deploringly. |
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Add: [1.] a. Now usu., to regard as scandalous, to feel or express strong disapproval of. (Later examples.)
| 1851 H. Melville Moby Dick xxxv. 172 It is much to be deplored that the mast-heads of a southern whale ship are unprovided with..crow's-nests. 1900 J. Conrad Lord Jim xix. 213 This was the worst incident of all in his—his retreat. Nobody could deplore it more than myself. 1927 V. Woolf To Lighthouse iii. 265 There was Minta..with a hole in her stocking... How William Bankes deplored it, without..saying anything about it! 1945 W. Stevens ‘Transport to Summer’ in Voices Spring 28 As one of the secretaries of the moon,..you have deplored How she presides over imbeciles. 1979 D. Murphy Wheels within Wheels iii. 47 Twice a week Mrs Mansfield called to drink tea with my mother and deplore the appalling inroads being made by democracy on good manners. 1984 G. Smith Eng. Compan. (1985) 67 While they applaud her courage, her decision, and her skill, they deplore her inflexibility. |