▪ I. wail, n.
(weɪl)
Also 5–6 waile, wayle.
[Belongs to wail v. Cf. ON. vǽl neut.]
1. The action of wailing; expression of pain or grief by prolonged vocal sound.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 13979 Miche wepyng & wail, wetyng of lere. 1726–46 Thomson Spring 725 Till..the woods Sigh to her song, and with her [the bereaved nightingale's] wail resound. 1811 W. R. Spencer Poems 23 What accents slow, of wail and woe. 1821 Byron Two Foscari i. i, Ah! a voice of wail! 1850 Robertson Serm. Ser. ii. iii. (1864) 35 He had an ear open for every tone of wail. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xi. i. (1873) IV. 2 A thousand children..with shrill unison of wail, sang out: ‘Oh, deliver us from slavery!’ 1865 Tom Taylor Ballads & Songs Brittany (Rtldg.) 55 There was weeping and wail from young and old. |
b. esp. Sound of lamentation for the dead.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 8719 The dole for þat doghty of his dere fryndes Of wepyng & wayle & wryngyng of hondes..no lettur might tell. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxvii, The wives o' the house of Glenallan wailed nae wail for the husband, nor the sister for the brother. 1844 Mrs. Browning Rom. Page xx, Wail shook Earl Walter's house; His true wife shed no tear. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xc, The dead, whose dying eyes Were closed with wail. 1862 Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. v. 102 ‘There was a great cry in Egypt,’ the loud, frantic, funeral wail, characteristic of the whole nation. |
2. A cry of pain or grief, esp. if loud and prolonged.
| 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola vi, Every time we..directed our eyes towards it, our guide set up a wail. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. Fleet I. 2 The newborn babe begins his earthly course with a wail. 1900 F. T. Bullen With Christ at Sea xii. 223 Six of them died..and were dropped overboard amid the piercing wails of their companions. |
b. fig. A bitter lamentation.
| 1867 Smiles Huguenots Eng. ix. (1880) 154 A long wail of anguish was rising from the persecuted all over France. 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 104 The record, or rather the wail of the native writer is more than borne out by [etc.]. 1873 E. J. Worboise Our New Home xv, And still all her wail was, ‘Oh, that I had died in Windermere!’ |
3. transf. A sound resembling a cry of pain.
| 1825 Longfellow Hymn Morav. Nuns 13 When the battle's distant wail Breaks the sabbath of our vale. 1858 N. J. Gannon O'Donoghue i. 10 Varied by fox's bark, the wail Of plover, or the pipe of quail. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xxv. 185 The storm..with a melancholy wail,..bade our rock farewell. 1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile vii. 195 Hark that thin plaintive cry! It is the wail of a night-wandering jackal. 1882 A. Edwardes Ballroom Repent. I. 219 A cantata..with a subtle wail of pain underlying the surface joyousness of the centric melody. 1913 M. Roberts Salt of the Sea xviii. 419 He made the whistle give a melancholy wail. |
† 4. A state of woe. Obs. rare.
| 1682 Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. iii. xxiii. (1716) 115 Dream not of any kind of Metempsychosis.., but into thine own body, and that after a long time, and then also unto wail or bliss, according to thy first and fundamental Life. |
▪ II. wail, v.
(weɪl)
Forms: 4–5 weyle, weile, 4–7 wayle, 5 waille, 6 waill, wale (weale), 4–7 waile, 6– wail.
[Prob. a. ON. *veila (cf. veilan wailing, Fritzner), f. vei int.: see woe. The recorded ON. word is vǽla (whence vǽl, vǽlan wailing), f. vǽ int., synonymous with vei. Cf. Sw. dial. väla, Norw. væla to bleat.]
1. a. intr. To express pain or sorrow by prolonged piteous cries. Often with reference to funeral lamentations.
| c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 2563 Al þat folk he herd waile For þat erl of Cornewaile. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 261 A þousent of men þo þrongen to-geders, Weopynd and waylyng for heore wikkede dedes. 1382 Wyclif Matt. xi. 17 We han mourned to ȝou, and ȝe han not weilid. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 383 Anone sche gan to wepe and weile. 1412–20 Lydg. Troy-bk. iv. 3625 Þe faire quene Eleyne Wailleth, crieth wiþ a dedly chere. 1513 Douglas æneis iii. v. 61 With that word sche brist out mony a teir, And walit so that pietie was to heir. 1577 Grange Golden Aphrod. G iv b, Then may I wake and wayle the night, my bed w{supt} teares besprent. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. ii. 7 Then gan she waile and weepe, to see that woefull stowre. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. ii. iii. 7 My Mother weeping: my Father wayling: my Sister crying. 1827 Pollok Course T. x, Where ye shall weep and wail for evermore. 1848 Dickens Dombey xxiii, Alexander Mac Stinger who had stopped in his crying to attend to the conversation, began to wail again. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 371 To address you, weeping and wailing and lamenting. |
b. To cry piteously for (something desired).
| 1573–80 Tusser Husb. (1878) 198 And God the holy Ghost, the soule of man doth winne, By moouing hir to waile for grace, ashamed of hir sinne. a 1771 Gray Dante 45, I heard 'em wail for Bread. |
† c. transf. Of the eyes: To weep. Obs. rare—1.
| 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 1508 An humble gate, calme looks, eyes wayling still. |
2. transf. a. Of birds, inanimate things: To give forth mournful sounds.
| 1595 Spenser Col. Clout 23 Whilest thou wast hence,..The woods were heard to waile full many a sythe, And all their birds with silence to complaine. a 1605 Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae (revision) ii, The turtle wails on witherit treis. 1820 Keats Hyperion iii. 109 O tell me, lonely Goddess! by thy harp, That waileth every morn and eventide. 1845 Dickens Chimes i. 2 As one not finding what it seeks,..it [sc. the night-wind] wails and howls to issue forth again. 1890 Bridges Shorter Poems i. iv, A flock of gulls are wheeling And wailing round my seat. |
b. Of music, etc.: To sound like a wail.
| 1852 Tennyson Ode Wellington 267 The Dead March wails in the people's ears. 1878 Susan Phillips On Seaboard 77 While the pibroch wildly wailing tells how all was lost and won. |
c. Of a jazz musician: to play very well, with great feeling, etc. (U.S. slang). Also U.S. colloq., to perform well.
| 1955 Shapiro & Hentoff Hear me talkin' to Ya 231, I revered the amazing Fats Waller, who had lately made a splash wailing on organ at the Lincoln. 1959 Encounter June 43/2 The Beat ‘cat’ approaches the Beat ‘chick’ with the ritualistic ‘Pad me’..the ‘chick's’, approach to the male is..‘I'm frigid,’ to which he can either reply ‘I'll make you wail’ (function) or, otherwise, ‘Don't bug.’ 1962 [see blow v.1 14 e]. 1977 C. McFadden Serial (1978) xxxix. 85/2 Despite his back, he was really wailin' when he hung a sharp right into his driveway, pretending Sutton Manor was a picturesque village along the route of the Tour de France. |
3. To utter persistent and bitter lamentations or complaints. With clause or quoted words: To say lamentingly.
| 13.. K. Alis. 4653 (Laud MS.) Often he crieþ, and often gynneþ waile, He wolde al Perse habbe yȝiue And he miȝth haue had his lyue. c 1388 On the 25 Articles in Wyclif's Sel. Wks. III. 481 As heþen men skorned þo sabbatis of Jerusalem in þer conquestis..as Jeromy weyleþ. 1555 T. Phaer æneid i. (1558) A iv b, And therwithin on armour heapes sitts Batail rage, and wailes With brasen cheines a hundred bound his wrastling not auailes. 1865 Trollope Belton Est. xii. 138 He went on wailing, complaining of his lot as a child complains. 1894 Baring-Gould Kitty Alone II. 75, ‘I wish I was dead,’ wailed the poor creature. 1913 Times 30 Sept. 10/2 ‘But I was going with him!’ she wails. |
4. To grieve bitterly.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus i. 556 Art now falle in som devocioun And waylest for thy sinne and thyn offence? c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Matt. v. Sel. Wks. I. 408 Blessid be þei þat weilen. c 1440 Gesta Rom. xxxiii. 132 (Add. MS.) There the synner waylithe, or is sory for his synns, he shalle be saf. 1534 More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1176/1 Thei wayled and dydde paynefull penaunce for theyr synne to procure god to pitie them. 1554–9 Songs & Ballads Phil. & Mary (Roxb.) 13 For thos that be leale, He makys them to weale, For faute of a meale, And good sustinance. 1601 Weever Mirr. Mart. E j b, Though foolishnes it be, For treasure lost, to waile, or make great sorrow. a 1677 Barrow Serm. Wks. 1687 III. xxiii. 268 To fret and wail at that, which, for all we can see, proceedeth from good intention, and tendeth to good issue, is pitifull frowardness. 1865 Neale Hymns Parad. 4 While she wails for her condition. 1879 Geo. Eliot Theo. Such ii. 27 Yet it is held no impiety..for a man to wail that he was not the son of another age and another nation. |
5. trans. To bewail, lament, deplore. Now poet. or rhetorical. a. To lament, manifest or feel deep sorrow for (sin, misfortune, suffering, whether one's own or that of others).
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 94 Ac for his wynnynge I wepe and weile þe tyme. c 1400 Rule St. Benet (E.E.T.S.) 122 Dayly wayling your synnes. c 1400 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) iv. xxxviii. (1859) 65 Yet weyle I more the lesyng of the kynges worship, than of myn awn dysese. 1485 Caxton St. Wenefreyde 3 Wayllyng the deth of their douhter. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 133 b, O, how they wyll wayle & wepe theyr negligences, & wysshe that they had neuer slepte so longe. 1575 Gascoigne Glasse of Govt. Wks. 1910 II. 58 We should be greevd, when as wee heare them grone, And wayle their wantes. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iii. i. 123 Yet I must not,..but wayle his fall, Who I my selfe struck downe. 1627 May Lucan ii. C 1, Who now has time to waile Plebeian fates? 1671 Milton Samson 63 Strength..proves the sourse of all my miseries; So many, and so huge, that each apart Would ask a life to wail. 17.. Auld Goodman i. in Ramsay's Tea-t. Misc. (1762) 111 Ay she wail'd her wretched life, And cry'd ever, Alake, my auld goodman. 1810 Scott Lady of L. iii. vi, To wood and stream his hap to wail. 1813 ― Rokeby iii. vi, For never felt his soul the woe, That wails a generous foeman low. 1868 Morris Earthly Par. I. i. 418 Well then might Psyche wail her wretched fate. 1898 Meredith Napoleon v. Poet. Wks. (1912) 481 A broken carol of wild notes was heard As when an ailing infant wails a dream. |
b. To lament, mourn bitterly for (the dead); to lament the absence or loss of.
| 1382 Wyclif 2 Chron. xxxv. 25 Al Juda and Jerusalem weileden hym [Vulg. luxerunt eum], Jeremyas most. 1631 Weever Anc. Funeral Mon. 309 They neither esteemed him while he was liuing, nor wailed him at all, after that he was dead. 1725 Pope Odyss. xi. 216 If no more her absent Lord she wails. 1810 Scott Lady of L. iii. xvi, The voice of the weeper Wails manhood in glory. |
† c. To deplore the lot of. Obs.
| a 1400 Rom. Rose 6271 If ther be wolves of sich hewe Amonges these apostlis newe, Thou, hooly chirche, thou mayst be wayled! |
Hence wailed ppl. a., lamented.
| 1562 A. Brooke Romeus & Jul. 1398 Like as there is no weale, but wastes away somtime, So euery kind of wayled woe will weare away in time. 1568 T. Howell Arb. Amitie (1879) 51 To bring vnto the wailed graue, this Countesse courteous corse. |
▪ III. wail
see vail v.1, veil n.1, wale n.1, v.1