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. 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 wt teares besprent.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. ii. 7. Then gan she waile and weepe, to see that woefull stowre.
1591. Shaks., 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. Shaks., Lucr., 1508. An humble gate, calme looks, eyes wayling still.
2. transf. 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 Death 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.
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. Phaër, 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., 8/5. ‘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. Shaks., 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. Ibid. (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.
