weeping

▪ I. weeping, vbl. n.
    (ˈwiːpɪŋ)
    [f. weep v. + -ing¹.]
    The action of the verb in the various senses; an instance of this.
    1. The expression or manifestation of sorrow, pain, etc. by shedding tears.

c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 53 We muȝen michel eðere forðen wepinge þene song. c 1275 Lay. 5970 Mochel was þar wepinge. c 1369 Chaucer Dethe Blaunche 600 My sorowe is turned to playnyng And al my laughter to wepyng. c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun (Roxb.) 158 Flodes..of trewest sorow and wepyng. 1561 Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtier i. D ij, The great Alexander, hearing a certayne Philosophers oppinion to be that there were infinite worldes, fell in weping. 1573 Bedingfield tr. Cardanus' Conf. ii. (1576) 16 b, The wepyng of y⊇ heire is the weepynge of one that laugheth vnder a vizar. 1633 P. Fletcher Ps. cxxxvii. 5 There we laid asteeping Our eyes in endlesse weeping For Sions fall. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. i. vi. 27 Sudden Dejection is the passion that causeth Weeping. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 95 ¶3 There is nothing, on these Occasions, so much in their Favour as immoderate Weeping. 1808 Scott Marm. v. xxxii, Weeping and wailing loud arose. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. Fleet i. i, So must this book begin with tears and weeping. 1896 H. G. Wells Wheels of Chance xix, Such weeping as he had seen before had been so much a matter of damp white faces, red noses, and hair coming out of curl.

    b. With a and pl.

1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 4180 He hurde..Of a womman a deoluol cry & a pitos wepinge. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. i. pr. ii. (1868) 9 And wiþ þe lappe of hir garment..she driede myn eyen þat were ful of þe wawes 0f my wepynges. c 1420 Prymer (1895) 52 [Ps. cxvi. 8] He haþ delyuerid..myn iȝen fro wepingis. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. (1812) I. cccxcvi. 683 Euery day encreased the complayntes, wepynges, and cryes, made to Phylyp Dartuell. 1630 Milton Passion 51 Should I..Take up a weeping on the Mountains wilde. 1777 Thicknesse Journ. France (1789) II. 51 You seem to hear the groans, weepings, and bewailings, from the dying. 1889 ‘J. S. Winter’ Mrs. Bob xx, And then what a weeping and a wailing there was!

    2. The exudation or dripping of moisture generally; the flow or discharge of humours from the body, of gum, etc. from a tree; also the liquid so falling. Also fig. the produce (of the vine).

a 1655 G. S. in Hartlib Ref. Commw. Bees 29 The Bees gather out of the weepings of Pine..Trees..abundance, both of Honey and Wax. 1699 W. Salmon Pharm. Bateana (1713) 654 They are good against a Gonorrhæa, Whites, Gleets, Weepings, &c. 1730 Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 453 The mucous Particles and Steams arising from the Lungs, made a constant weeping of a thin slavery Liquor from the Mouth of the Pipe. 1744 Berkeley Siris §28 The weepings of the lentiscus and cypress. 1817 Moore Lalla Rookh, Veiled Prophet 499 Vases, filled with Kishmee's golden wine, And the red weepings of the Shiraz vine. 1877 A. W. Bennett tr. Thomé's Bot. 48 A process on which depends, for example, the ‘weeping’ of wounded grape-vines. 1889 Welch Naval Archit. x. 118 Any weeping of the rivets or caulking which results, is rectified.

    3. The drooping or downward sweep (of hair).

1869 Blackmore Lorna D. viii, The dark soft weeping of her hair.

    4. attrib. and Comb., as weeping-match, weeping-scene; † weeping-dale = ‘vale of tears’ (vale n.¹ 2 b); weeping-hole, an opening through which moisture percolates; weeping-ripe a., ready to weep; † weeping-room, opportunity for weeping; † weeping-spot, a spot or stain where a tear has fallen; weeping-time, -while, a time when one weeps or may weep.

c 1400 Pety Job 410 in 26 Pol. Poems 134 In thys wofull *wepyng dale, I byde alwey.

1866 Chamb. Encycl. VIII. 217/2 Holes are left through the wall called ‘*weeping-holes’. 1903 C. Bald Indian Tea vii. (1917) 97 It is imperatively necessary to have weeping holes, to carry off any water which may get behind the building.

1856 Kane Arctic Expl. II. xi. 117 They often assemble by concert for a general *weeping-match.

1548 Elyot's Dict., Lachrymabundus,..*weepyng rype. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 274 The King was weeping ripe for a good word. 1593 ― 3 Hen. VI, i. iv. 172. a 1614 Fletcher Valentinian i. iii, Then as Souldiers..they tell their wounds Even weeping ripe they were no more nor deeper. 1648 Herrick Hesper., Pastorall to King 7 Behold him weeping ripe.

1611 Chapman Iliad xxiv. 554 Ilion Shall finde thee *weeping roomes enow.

1809 A. Henry Trav. 285 Had I not previously been witness to a *weeping-scene of this description, I should certainly have been apprehensive of some disastrous catastrophe.

c 1430 Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 2370 The *weping spottes in no wise Thei coude with noo craft gete a-way While thei had wesh it so many a day.

c 1400 Love Bonavent. Mirr. (1907) 191 And of thise three *wepynge tymes speketh holy writte.

1893 F. Thompson Poems 71 Smile, sweet baby, smile, For you will have *weeping-while.

    † b. Anat., as weeping corner (of the eye); weeping-flesh, the lachrymal caruncle; weeping vein, the ophthalmic vein. Obs.
    to ope the weeping vein: to cause weeping. poet.

1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. ii. iv. 257 b, In the weping corners of the eyes, there groweth a fistula [etc.]. 1616 Chapman Odyss. x. 519, I granted, went, and op't the weeping veine In all my men. 1639 T. de Grey Compl. Horsem. ii. i. (1656) 65 The Veines which we do usuallie open, are; First the two Temple-Veines... Secondlie, we open the two Eye or weeping-Veines. Ibid. ii. xv. 494 First let him bloud in the neck and weeping veines. 1656 J. Smith Pract. Physick 120 A Haw in the Eye..is discerned from the weeping flesh, because the roots of the Nail ever inclineth most to whitenesse. Ibid. 345 An Ulcer of the weeping flesh, namely an ægylops.

▪ II. weeping, ppl. a.
    (ˈwiːpɪŋ)
    [f. weep v. + -ing².]
    1. a. That weeps. Said of persons, also of the eyes.

c 1000 ælfric Josh. vi. 21 Hi ofsloᵹon..ða wepende cild. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 6938 Þe quene was þo vorþ ilad mid moni a wepinde eye Of bissopes & of heyemen. c 1425 Cursor M. 14023 (Trin.) Were þis mon prophete so good Þis wepynge wommon [Earlier texts Þis womman wepand] on him wood He auȝte to witen what she were. 1450–1530 Myrr. Our Ladye ii. 233 The gretnes of godhed was mekely hyd in the lytel body of a weping chylde. 1554 Bury Wills (Camden) 145, I bequeath to my nece Mary Gifford..my ringe with the wepinge eie. 1575 Gascoigne Flowers, Mask Mountacute 164 That so he might be shewed..Unto us all, whose weeping eyes dyd much abhorre the sight. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. i. ii. 53, I feare hee will proue the weeping Phylosopher when he growes old, being so full of vnmannerly sadnesse in his youth. 1617 R. White Cupid's Banishm. in Nichols Progr. Jas. I (1828) III. 293 The Weeping Drunkard next. 1667 Dryden Ind. Emp. iv. iv, Cyd. More cruel than the Tyger o're his spoil; And falser than the Weeping Crocodile. 1697 ― æneis v. 797 Turning to the Sea their weeping Eyes. 1706 Rowe Ulysses iv. i, Sadly attentive to the weeping Queen. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 252 ¶3 There is something so moving in the very Image of weeping Beauty. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1768) IV. 146 A weeping eye indicates a gentle heart. 1754 Gray Progr. Poesy 44 Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train. 1848 Dickens Dombey xxxv, Edith looked down upon the weeping girl, and once kissed her. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xxxii, He had taken leave of his weeping sweetheart. 1884 J. Parker Apost. Life III. 124 When men speak of Jeremiah, they think of him as the weeping prophet.

    † b. absol. Persons weeping. Obs.

c 1482 Monk of Evesham (Arb.) 24 He..fulbitterly beganne to wepe and with rennyng terys sorofully sobbyd as wepyng doth [L. ut plorantes solent].

    c. weeping monkey: a name applied to the sapajous. Cf. weeper 2.

1834 M{supc}Murtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 48 Their name of Weeping Monkeys is derived from their plaintive voice.

    2. Of the voice, the countenance: Tearful, lachrymose. Of utterances: Accompanied with weeping, tearful. Of emotion: Expressed by weeping.

c 900 Bæda's Hist. i. xii, Ða..onsendon hi ærendwrecan to Rome mid ᵹewritum & wepindre bene [L. lacrimosis precibus]. c 1000 Ags. Ps. (Thorpe) vi. 7 Forðam þe Drihten hyrde mine wependan stefne [Vulg. vocem fletus mei]. a 1300 Cursor M. 17947 Wiþ wepynge preyere. 1382 Wyclif Dan. vi. 20 With a wepynge voice [Vulg. voce lacrimabili]. c 1400 26 Pol. Poems xi. 46 Repentaunce makeþ wepyng mon [= moan]. 1561 Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtier ii. (1900) 161 For undoubtedlye it is not meete for a Gentle manne to make weeping and laughing faces. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. i. 34 Her words yclad with wisedomes Maiesty, Makes me from Wondring, fall to Weeping ioyes, Such is the Fulnesse of my hearts content. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 457 Leauing me with a weeping good-night. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) II. 154 Having taken a weeping leave of all the family. Ibid. IV. 17 We behold him with weeping gratitude. 1827 Pollok Course T. ix. 1156 Bards..bewailed them much, With doleful instruments of weeping song.

    3. † a. weeping tears, abundant weeping. Rarely in sing. Obs.

a 1470 Harding Chron. cxl. x, He shroue hym then vnto abbots three With great sobbyng and hye contricion, And wepyng teares. 1471 Caxton Recuyell (Sommer) 644 The troians toke the body of parys with wepyng teres and bare hit vnto the cyte. 1513 Douglas æneis xiii. iv. 40 Wyth sik plente of bittir wepand teris. 1560 tr. J. Fisher's Godly Treat. Benef. Prayer H 1, With many sighes and aboundaunce of wepyng teares. 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 1375 Many a dry drop seem'd a weeping teare, Shed for the slaughtred husband by the wife. 1652 C. B. Stapylton Herodian i. 7 This Message was receiv'd with weeping teares. a 1700 Tri. Patience in Halliw. Yorks. Anthol. (1851) 359 With weeping tears she did reply, My heart is overwhelm'd with grief. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Weeping-tears, A very odd pleonasm, but in very common use for excessive sorrow.

    b. Falling or issuing in drops like tears. Now rare or Obs.

1686 Plot Staffordsh. 79 The Springs on, or near the tops of hills, if weak and weeping, may proceed from rains. 1704 Pope Windsor For. 30 Let India boast her plants, nor envy we The weeping amber or the balmy tree. 1735 J. Price Stone-br. Thames 6 To empty out the weeping Water and Springs. 1766 Complete Farmer s.v. Lucern, Except it be obstructed by a stratum of rock, or chilled at root by weeping springs. 1827 Pollok Course T. v. 98 Though poets..talked and sang Of brooks, and crystal founts, and weeping dews. 1831 Wordsw. Sonnet Depart. Sir W. Scott 1 A trouble, not of clouds, or weeping rain..Engendered.

    4. Exuding moisture: a. Of soil: Oozing, swampy.

1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. 17 b, Yf it be wette or weepyng ground, or subiect vnto other inconueniences. 1597 Shakes. Lover's Compl. 39 A riuer..Vpon whose weeping margent she was set. 1625 Markham Inrichment Weald Kent 9 The Haisell ground being dry, and not subiect to Winter-springs, or teares of water (for which some call such, A whining or weeping ground) is to be handled thus. Ibid. 19 A sandy and grauelly ground that is wet and weeping. 1644 G. Plattes in Hartlib's Legacy (1655) 216 The last Experiment, shewing how weeping land may be drained where there is no level. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 2 June 1676, The soil a cold weeping clay, not answering the expence. 1707 Mortimer Husb. 33 Ray-Grass..is reckoned to grow on any Land, but chiefly in Cold sour Clays, and weeping Grounds. 1801 Farmer's Mag. Nov. 409 Upon poor, weak, weeping clays, where..the dung is locked up,..the application of lime is equally salutary. 1813 Vancouver Agric. Devon 40 The shaley rock, covered with a grey loam of a moderate staple, and producing a very wet and weeping surface. 1816 Trial Berkeley Poachers 30 There I could see, for there was a wet or weeping place, the tracks of sixteen men.

    b. Path. Of the eyes: Running, watering. Also of diseased tissues or structures from which moisture exudes. weeping eczema, a variety of eczema characterized by abundant exudation.

1580 Blundevil Curing Horses Dis. xxviii. 15 Of weeping or watering eies. 1810 Sporting Mag. XXXV. 140 It appeared that at the time of sale the horse had weeping eyes. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 503 A general raw, red, weeping surface is produced. Ibid. 608 Squamous or weeping eczema. Ibid. 749 The epidermis is exfoliated..leaving the skin underneath red and tender but never moist or weeping as in eczema.

    c. In general use.

1550 Bale Acts Engl. Votaries ii. O vj, I coulde here shewe ye wonders of wepinge Roodes, and sweating ladies. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 647 The yawning Earth disclos'd th' Abyss of Hell: The weeping Statues did the Wars foretel. 1710 D. Hilman Tusser Rediv. Apr. (1744) 45 His Bark clean without fungi or Toad-stools, no weeping Holes or decayed Boughs upon him. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 283 Oozing springs,..weeping rocks. 1903 E. Childers Riddle of Sands ix. 92, I returned, with a shock, to the present, to the weeping walls, the discoloured deal table, the ghastly breakfast litter.

    d. † weeping bower, the name given in Barbados to a tree that exudes a gum of some kind. weeping gum, the name of two species of Eucalyptus, E. pauciflora and E. viminalis (Morris Austral Engl. s.v. Gum).

1696 Plukenet Almagestum Wks. 1769 II. 43 Arbor..Scenam topiariam efformans Lachrymifera, fortè Stacteflua, s. Myrrham liquidam fundens... Nostratibus Colonis Weeping Bower nuncupata.

    5. Of climate, weather, skies, etc.: Dripping, rainy.

1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. iii. 61 A naked subiect to the Weeping Clouds. a 1668 Denham To Sir John Mennis 1 All on a weeping Monday,..Little Admiral John To Bologne is gone. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 6 Sept., This country would be a perfect paradise, if it was not, like Wales, cursed with a weeping climate. 1819 Keats Otho v. v. 39 Gauzes of silver mist, Loop'd up with cords of twisted wreathed light, And tassell'd round with weeping meteors! 1821 Scott Pirate iv, The inconveniences arising from a cold soil and a weeping climate. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 981 In a weeping season, the hay on one property was effectually saved by the use of the tedding-machine. 1846 A. Marsh Father Darcy xxxviii, It was a weeping day—a cold, cloudy day, at the very beginning of September. 1884 A. S. Swan Carlowrie ii. 30 The rain still falling desolately from weeping skies. 1896 Kipling Seven Seas, Three Sealers, The weeping fog rolled fold on fold the wrath of man to cloak.

transf. 1615 Chapman Odyss. xix. 646 Ioy and griefe together Her brest inuaded: and of weeping weather Her eyes stood full.

    6. Used to designate trees (less frequently other plants) the branches of which arch over and hang down drooping. Chiefly in the distinctive names of particular species or varieties. [So F. pleureur in saule pleureur weeping willow, frêne pleureur weeping ash.]
    weeping oak, the Californian white oak, Quercus lobata; also, a cultivated variety of the English oak, Quercus Robur. The weeping ash, weeping beech, weeping birch, weeping elm, etc. are varieties of certain species of those trees; in botanical works they are designated by the addition of pendula after the specific name. See also weeping willow.

1606 N. B[axter] Sydney's Ourania F 4 b, The weeping Elme, the Beech, the Byrch. 1791 W. Gilpin Forest Scenery I. 41 There is another variety also of this tree, called the weeping elm. Ibid. 66 Of the white birch there is a..variety, sometimes called the lady-birch, or the weeping-birch. 1807 J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 61 The weeping variety of the Common Ash. 1824 ‘A. Singleton’ Lett. from South & West 62 The weeping-cherry..bears blossoms when a part of the fruit is ripe. 1838 Loudon Arboretum II. 1214 Fraxinus pendula... The pendulous, or weeping Ash. Ibid. III. 1691 Betula pendula..the weeping Birch. Ibid. 1732 Quercus pendula..the Weeping Oak. Ibid. 1952 Fagus pendula..the weeping Beech. 1849 Florist 273 Among weeping trees, we found the weeping purple Beech, the weeping Holly, the new weeping Elm,..the weeping Yew, the weeping Oak, weeping silver Fir, and weeping red Cedar. 1859 D. Bunce Trav. Dr. Leichhardt 91 Many species of Acacia made their appearance, including the celebrated Weeping Myall. 1865 Gosse Land & Sea (1874) 343 The..rhizome of Goniophlebium dissimile..allows to droop on every side its long, weeping fronds. 1868 Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 202 Weeping and drooping trees. 1869 S. R. Hole Bk. about Roses viii. 124 They may soon be trained into Weeping Roses. 1882 Proc. Berw. Nat. Club IX. No. iii. 436 At the upper end stands..a purple beech, and a weeping elm, there being weeping ashes elsewhere. 1889 Weeping myall [see boree3]. 1895 Cornish Wild Eng. 92 On the shaded bank, a line of weeping-birches dips into the pool. 1898 Morris Austral Engl. 171 Rice Grass, Meadow, Microtæna stipoides. Called also Weeping Grass. Ibid. 506 Weeping-Myall, an Australian tree, Acacia pendula. Cunn. 1951 Dict. Gardening (R. Hort. Soc.) IV. 1825/2 Newly planted bush and standard (not weeping) roses should be pruned back. 1969 Better Homes & Gardens (U.S.) Apr. 83 Weeping cherry, bright pink blossoms are artistically spaced along the gracefully hanging branches.

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