[f. WAIL v. + -ER1.] One who wails; spec. a professional mourner.
1647. Hexham, I. A wailer or bewailer, een kermer.
1822. Scott, Peveril, xlvii. Those dangers from which the poor blushing wailers of my sex shrink.
1851. G. W. Curtis, Nile Notes, xii. 54. Before us a funeral procession was moving to the tombs, and the shrill melancholy cry of the wailers rang fitfully.
1877. Miss A. B. Edwards, Up Nile, xix. 524. A funeral with a train of wailers goes out presently towards the burial-ground.
1915. 19th Cent., Nov., 1147. These ‘howls’ have been practised from childhood; they are led in chorus by a professional ‘wailer.’
Hence † Waileress, a female wailer.
1388. Wyclif, Jer. ix. 17. Clepe ȝe wymmen that weilen v.r. weileressis].
