[f. WEARY a. + -NESS.]
1. Weary condition; extreme tiredness or fatigue resulting from exertion, continued endurance of pain, or want of sleep.
c. 900. Bæda’s Hist., III. ix. (1890), 178. [Þæt hors] þy ʓewunelican þeawe horsa æfter weriʓnesse ongon wealwian.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 35. [Adam] ne þurte naure þolen hunger ne þurst,… ne werinesse, ne elde, ne unhelðe, ne deð.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 4920 + 34. He lay muchedel of þe nyȝt in wo & in sorwe,… So þat aslep atte laste vor werynysse hym nome.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 35. Upberynge us in oure werynes.
c. 1450. Merlin, ii. 39. Than the white [dragon] leide hym down to reste for werynesse.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxv. 9. For weirines on me ane slummer soft Come with ane dremyng.
1584. Cogan, Haven Health, i. 11. First I shall declare what remedie is to be vsed against wearinesse which commeth by immoderate labour.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., III. vi. 33. Wearinesse Can snore vpon the Flint, when restie Sloth Findes the Downe-pillow hard.
1649. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wandering to see West, 8. At last, wearinesse and watching, began to inforce sleep upon me.
1707. Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 86. If the Exercise be Immoderate with great Weariness, the Spirits and Heat are very much evaporated.
1797. Coleridge, Christabel, I. 74. I scarce can speak for weariness.
1856. Sir B. Brodie, Psychol. Inq., I. iv. 136. The muscles … may be for a long time in a state of involuntary contraction … without weariness being induced.
2. Tedium or distaste induced by monotonous or uncongenial conditions or occupations; tiredness of a course of action, a state of things, a person or thing. † Also rarely const. to with inf.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 129 b. Therof foloweth … tedyousnes in all goostly exercyse, & werynes of holy company.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 376. A certeyne wearynes, and impacience of long imprisonment.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Death (Arb.), 387. A man would die, though he were neither valiant, nor miserable, only vpon a wearinesse to doe the same thing, so oft ouer and ouer.
1643. R. Baker, Chron. (1653), 9. Osred, whose wife Cutburga, out of a loathing wearinesse of wedlock, sued out a divorce from her husband.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xii. Weariness of soul lies before her, as it lies behind.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., IV. xviii. 37. The struggle … terminated, through weariness of enduring and inflicting suffering.
1885. Manch. Exam., 15 May, 5/6. Sheer weariness of things which are to them common and familiar.
3. Something that wearies.
1560. Bible (Geneva), Eccl. xii. 12. There is none end in making manie bokes: and muche reading is a wearines of the flesh.
1845. Froude, Nemesis of Faith (1849), 109. Long devotions are a weariness to healthy children.
1856. Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, II. x. The children were dull, and she began to believe she was doing no good—it was all a weariness.
1905. R. Bagot, Passport, x. 90. To be compelled by fashion to sit down to a meal at the pleasantest hour in all the twenty-four is a weariness to the flesh and a vexation to the spirit.
