Obs. Also 4–5 waymente, weyment(e, 4–5, 7 wament, 5–6 Sc. woment, wement, 6–7 waiment. [a. OF. waimenter, weymenter, guaimenter, f. wai, guai int., wo, alas; prob. after lamenter to lament.]
1. intr. To lament, wail; to sorrow bitterly.
1375. Cant. Creat., 177, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1878), 126/2. Þus seuentene dayes and more Alle þe fisches sorweden þore And waymentide wiþ Adam.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 230. Thilke science, as seith seint Augustyn, maketh a man to waymenten in his herte.
c. 1450. Mirour Saluacioun (Roxb.), 94. The whilk for hire two sons waymentid doelfully.
1530. Palsgr., 779/2. I wement, I make mone…. It dyd my hert yll to here the poore boye wement whan his mother was gone.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. i. 16. For what bootes it to weepe and to wayment, When ill is chaunst?
1595. Locrine, II. ii. 89. And therefore well may I wayment.
1678. Littleton, Eng.-Lat. Dict., To wament, lamento.
1814. Cary, Dante, Purg., XXVI. 135. Sorely waymenting for my folly past.
1861. K. H. Digby, Chapel St. John (1863), 182. The profane laity chuckling or waymenting when conferring professionally with one another on their … gains, or losses.
refl. c. 1450. Merlin, xvi. 262. Whan he hadde thus hym longe waymented.
2. trans. To bewail, lament for.
c. 1475. Partenay, 3324. He thaim complained And waymented sore.
1566. Gascoigne, Jocasta, II. i. 57. And mee thy wretched dame,… waymenting still Th’ vnworthie exile thy brother to thee gaue.
1593. G. Harvey, New Let. Notable Cont., Wks. (Grosart), I. 296. Magnifique Mindes … In grisly weedes His Obsequies wainent.
Hence † Waymenting vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xxxiii. 21. The ded of synfulmen … is werst…, thof it be endid in riches and honurs and waymentynge of men.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 137. The grete clamour and the waymentynge That the ladyes made at the brennynge Of the bodies.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, II. 161. The pittows wementyng [ed. 1570 womenting], The wofull wepyng that was for his takyng.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IV. viii. 2. How mony sobbis gaif thow and womentingis?
1566. Gascoigne, Jocasta, V. v. 116. I will … washe thy wounds with my waymenting teares.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, III. iv. 504. For their lost husbands they entreate their waymentings by repetition of the good and gracefull partes they were endowed with.
1621. Molle, Camerar. Liv. Libr., II. xviii. 130. The … pittifull waymenting of the people.
1883. R. W. Dixon, Mano, I. xvi. 53. How waymenting Came in joy’s place.
