Weep v.

Pa. t. and pa. pple. wept. Forms: α. Inf. 1 wœpen, wépan, 2–3 wepen, (Orm. -enn), 3 weopen, 3–6 wepe, (3 weape), 4 wipe, weope, 3–4 wep, (5 wepyn, wape), 5–8 Sc. weip, 6 Sc. veip, vepe, 6–7 weepe, (7 weap), 7– weep. Pa. t. 1 wéop, 2–4 weop, 3 weap, wiep, 3–4 wep, wop, 3–5 wepe, (4 weep, wip, 5 wippe); 3 wepude, 4 wepped, 4–5 weped, (4 wepid, wepet), 4–6 wepit, (4 weppit, 5 wepput, 6 Sc. weipit, vepit), 6–9 weeped, 4– wept. Pa. pple. 1 wópen, 4 wopen, i-wope, 4 wepen; 4 wepid, 8 weeped; 4 ywept, wepte, 7 weept, 4– wept. [A Com. Teut. vb., prob. originally weak, but in WGer. assimilated to the reduplicating conjugation: OE. wépan (pa. t. wéop) corresponds to OFris. wêpa to cry aloud (str. pa. pple. wêpin, -en), OS. wôpian to bewail (pa. t. weop), OHG. wuofan to bewail, pa. t. wiof (MHG. wuofen, pa. t. wief), also OHG. wuoffen, pa. t. wuofita (MHG. wüefen, pa. t. wüefte), ON. œpa (pa. t. œpta) to scream, shout (whence ME. EPE v.), Goth. wōpjan to cry aloud, call; f. the OTeut. *wōpo- represented in OE. wóp masc., weeping (see WOPE), OS. wôp masc., lamentation, OHG. MHG. wuof masc., lamentation, ON. óp neut., cry. Outside Teut. no certain cognates are known.

  The weak inflexion first appears in the 13th c., and became prevalent in the 14th.]

  I.  intr.

  1.  To manifest the combination of bodily symptoms (instinctive cries or moans, sobs and shedding of tears) that is the natural, audible and visible expression of painful (and sometimes of intensely pleasurable) emotion; also, and in mod. use chiefly, to shed tears (more or less silently).

  In mod.English somewhat rare in non-literary use, being superseded by cry; recently a sense of the inappropriateness of that verb as applied to silent manifestations seems to have in some degree revived the colloquial currency of weep in the sense ‘to shed tears.’

c. 900.  Bæda’s Hist., III. xiv. (1890), 198. He ongon wepan hluttrum tearum.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxvi. 75. And he eode ut & weop [Vulg. ploravit] bityrlice.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 43. Nu bi-gon paul to wepen wunderliche, and mihhal heh engel þer weop forð mid him.

c. 1205.  Lay., 6650. Þer Elidur þe king weop [c. 1275 wep] mid his eȝenen. Ibid., 18895. Þæ æremite gon to weopen.

1297.  R. Glouc., 6924. Þe quene wepinde [v.r. wepude] wel sore, þe king ansuerede þis.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 14023. Þis womman [Mary Magdalene] wepand on his fete.

1340.  Ayenb., 93. No þet ne is naȝt lyf of man ac of child þet nou wepþ nou lheȝþ.

138[?].  Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 249. Þei shulden … wipe wiþ men þat wepen here.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 144. She was … so pitous She wolde wepe if that she saugh a Mous Kaught in a trappe, if it were deed or bledde.

c. 1425.  Seven Sag. (P.), 570. Scho wippe and hir hondis wronge.

c. 1450.  Merlin, ii. 30. And a-noon this othir [child] began to crye and wape.

1570.  Satir. Poems Reform., xiii. 150. The tyme sall cum that he sall weip and murne.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., IV. i. 143. She … So hangs, and lolls, and weepes vpon me. Ibid. (1610), Temp., III. i. 74. I am a foole To weepe at what I am glad of.

1667.  Milton, P. L., XI. 495. Sight so deform what heart of Rock could long Drie-ey’d behold? Adam could not, but wept.

1700.  Dryden, Sigism. & Guisc., 578. Away, with Women weep, and leave me here, Fix’d, like a Man to die, without a Tear.

1782.  Miss Burney, Cecilia, IV. i. Mrs. Harrel … had shut herself up in her own room to weep and lament.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., XXX. v. ‘They rest,’ we said,… And silence follow’d, and we wept.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xxv. 191. I could have wept like a child.

  b.  said of animals.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (1919), xxxii. 192. Þeise serpentes [sc. crocodiles] slen men & þei eten hem wepynge.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 282. Let the strucken Deere go weepe.

1612.  Webster, White Divel, D 3. Here is a Stag my Lord hath shed his hornes, And for the losse of them the poore beast weepes.

1872.  Darwin, Emotions, vi. 167. The Indian elephant is known sometimes to weep.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 361. Man … is … affected with the inclination to weep more than any other animal.

  c.  Const. for, over, † on (a person or thing regretted or commiserated).

a. 900.  O. E. Martyrol., 30 July, 132. Þa weop eall Romana dugoð for þære dæde.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Luke xxiii. 28. Nallað ȝie woepa ofer mec [Vulg. super me] ah ofer iuh seolfo woepað.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 157. He iseh Martham and Mariam Magdalene þe sustren wepe for hore broðer deð.

c. 1225.  Ancr. R., 312. He weop oðe rode, & o Lazre, & o Jerusalem.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 4149. .xxx. daiȝes wep israel for his dead.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 1799. For þar misdedes wepe þai þan.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., II. pr. ii. (1868), 35. Paulus whan he hadde take þe kyng of perciens weep pitously for þe captiuitee of þe self kyng.

1382.  Wyclif, Luke xix. 41. He seynge the citee, wepte on it [Vulg. flevit super illam].

a. 1450.  Mirk’s Festial, 32. Þen for Ion segh mony wepe for hyr, Ion sayde to hyr: Drusyan, ryse vp.

1549.  Compl. Scot., ii. 25. The prophet hieremye vepit for the stait of the public veil of babillone.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., V. i. 87. Weepe thou for me in France; I, for thee heere. Ibid. (1601), All’s Well, I. i. 3. And I in going Madam, weep ore my fathers death anew.

1623.  Cockeram, III. s.v. Crocodile, Hauing eaten the body of a man, it [sc. a crocodile] will weepe ouer the head, but in fine eate the head also.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 70, ¶ 8. Instead of weeping over the Wound she had received, as one might have expected from a Warrior of her Sex.

1803.  M. G. Lewis, Sir Agilthorne, liv. They who can weep for others’ woes, Should ne’er have cause to weep their own.

1827.  Carlyle, Ess., Richter (1840), I. 29. Like him we have long laughed at them or wept for them.

1833.  Tennyson, Two Voices, 149. In some good cause … To perish, wept for, honour’d, known. Ibid. (1855), Maud, I. VIII. An angel watching an urn Wept over her, carved in stone.

1853.  Dickens, Bleak Ho., lv. I knew by that time … how you had mourned for me, and wept for me.

  d.  Const. for (the emotion that prompts weeping). Similarly with to and inf., or a that-clause.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 6954. Þe bissopes þat hir ladde vor ioye wepe al so.

a. 1352.  Minot, Poems, xi. 12. For wo will he wepe.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, XX. 237. Thar wes nane in that Cumpany That thai ne wepit for pite.

c. 1420.  Anturs of Arthur, 560 (Douce MS.). Thus wepus for wo Wowayne þe wighte.

1591.  Shaks., Two Gent., II. iii. 12. A Iew would haue wept to haue seene our parting. Ibid. (1593), 2 Hen. VI., III. ii. 121. Henry weepes, that thou dost liue so long. Ibid. (1593), Rich. II., III. ii. 4. I weepe for ioy To stand vpon my Kingdome once againe.

1648.  Herrick, Hesper., To Daffadills, i. Faire Daffadills, we weep to see You haste away so soone.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IX. 991. So saying, she embrac’d him, and for joy Tenderly wept.

1784.  Cowper, Task, VI. 700. Maidens wave Their ’kerchiefs, and old women weep for joy.

a. 1806.  H. K. White, Solitude, vi. I start, and when the vision’s flown, I weep that I am all alone.

1865.  Swinburne, Chastelard, III. i. 104. I have wept for wrath Sometimes and for mere pain, but for love’s pity I cannot weep at all.

  e.  To call † on, cry or pray to with weeping. rare.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 7822. He wep on god vaste ynou & criede him milce & ore.

c. 1460.  Merita Missæ, 105, in Lay Folks Mass Bk., 151. And how he dide for the weop To his fader on olywete.

1560.  Bible (Geneva), Num. xi. 13. For they wepe vnto me, saying, Giue vs flesh that we may eat.

1845.  Mrs. Norton, Child of Islands (1846), 43. Then sweet St. Mary stands in her recess, Worshipped and wept to, as a thing divine.

  f.  Phr. To weep one’s fill or bellyful.

a. 1290.  S. Eustace, 193, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1881), 215. Ich habbe I-wopen al mine fille.

1548.  Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. John xi. 28–31. They folowed hir: suspectyng that … she woulde haue gooen to the graue, and there to wepe hir belly full.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., II. v. 113. Ile beare thee hence, where I may weepe my fill.

  g.  Proverbial expressions.

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov., I. xi. (1867), 28. Naie good childe, better children weepe then olde men.

1616.  T. Draxe, Bibl. Scholast., 23. It is better that children weepe, then old men.

[1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., II. ii. 122. But man … Plaies such phantastique tricks before high heauen, As makes the Angels weepe.]

1859.  H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xliii. To see a young fellow like that … only ripe for the gallows at five-and-twenty, is enough to make the angels weep.

1889.  ‘J. S. Winter,’ Mrs. Bob, xii. Ye Gods! it is a sight to make the angels weep.

  2.  Phrases. † To weep Irish: to weep unfeelingly, as a professional mourner weeps at an Irish wake. To weep with (or over) an onion: fig. to weep with feigned grief.

1586.  Stanyhurst, Descr. Irel., viii. 44/2, in Holinshed. They follow the dead corpse to the graue with howling and barbarous outcries, pitifull in apparance: whereof grew, as I suppose, the prouerbe: To weepe Irish [orig. Hibernice lacrimari].

1589.  Pappe w. Hatchet, D iv b. Ile make thee to forget Bishops English, and weep Irish.

1650.  Fuller, Pisgah, II. xii. § 15. 247. Surely the Egyptians did not weep-Irish with faigned and mercenary teares.

1681.  W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 1305. To weep Irish, or to feign sorrow.

[1601.  Shaks., All’s Well, V. iii. 321. Mine eyes smell Onions, I shall weepe anon.]

1616.  Withals’ Dict., 557. Flere ad nouercæ tumulum, to weepe with an Onion.

1882.  T. G. Bowles, Flotsam & Jetsam, i. 144. Here again is … the Vicomte weeping ruefully over the strongest onion that ever man sliced.

  3.  Of the eyes: To shed tears.

1567.  Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.), 16. And wowis vaine, quhilk thay did neuer keip, Sall gar thame gnasche thair teith, & eyis weip.

1588.  Shaks., Tit. A., III. i. 59 (Qo. 1600). Titus, prepare thy aged eyes to weepe.

1780.  Cowper, Boadicea, iii. Princess! if our aged eyes Weep upon thy matchless wrongs, ’Tis because [etc.].

1810.  Scott, Lady of L., II. xxii. ’Twas an hero’s eye that weep’d.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, viii. Her eyes are always weeping for the loss of her beauty.

1871.  R. Ellis, trans. Catullus, lxi. 85. Her innocent Eyes do weep to be going.

  b.  fig. of the heart. (Cf. 6 b.)

13[?].  Adam Davy’s Five Dreams, 64. Myne herte wop for grete drede.

1550.  Crowley, Epigr., 163. The other sorte … Do make my harte wepe whan they come to my mind.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. ii. 335. My heart weepes to see him So little, of his great Selfe.

1796.  Lett. to Cowper, in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc. (1918), 32. My heart wept for thee … with the tenderest solicitude for thy welfare.

  4.  transf. Of things: To shed water or moisture in drops; to exude drops of water. Also, to waste away in drops.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden, IV. 3. The preost … seide þat þere come nevere reyn…; but the trees hadde i-wope in þe eclipses of þe sonne and of þe moone.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (1839), vii. 78. And there besyde ben 4 Pileres of Ston, that alle weys droppen Watre: and sum men seyn, that thei wepen for our Lordes Dethe.

c. 1440.  Pallad. on Husb., IX. 75. Clayes wepe Vncerteynly, whos teres beth right swete.

1570.  Satir. Poems Reform., xv. 1. Ȝe Montaines, murne; ȝe valayis, vepe.

1603.  G. Owen, Pembrokesh. (1891), 78. In these buildinges you shall finde … all the walles of the house to be all weapinge and covered with streames of water.

1607.  Shaks., Timon, II. ii. 168. When all our Offices haue beene opprest With riotous Feeders, when our Vaults have wept With drunken spilth of Wine.

1698.  Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 126. I saw … Women … waiting the distilling of Water from its [the tank’s] dewy sides; which they catch in Jarrs, and … carrying it away, leave it only weeping.

c. 1722.  Lisle, Husb. (1757), 23. If you lay dung on a sandy or rocky ground … it will be weeping away.

1732.  P. Miller, Gard. Kalendar (1762), 280. Where … resinous trees … require some of their branches to be cut off, this is the best season … for now they are not so subject to weep.

1810.  Scott, Lady of L., I. xxxv. The birch-trees wept in fragrant balm.

1854.  J. S. C. Abbott, Napoleon (1855), II. xxvii. 501. The sky ceased to weep, and the vail of clouds was withdrawn.

1909.  Ethel Clifford, in Engl. Rev., March, 617.

  b.  To issue in drops; to trickle or fall as tears. Also with out.

1596.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iv. 58. The blood weepes from my heart, when I doe shape [etc.].

1737.  [S. Berington], G. di Lucca’s Mem., 183. It [Gold] comes oftentimes in great lumps from the Mineral Rocks, as if it wept out from between the joints.

1828.  Spearman, Brit. Gunner, 340. The water will continue to weep or run from the holes.

1884.  Manch. Exam., 3 May, 5/3. There would evidently have been some difficulty in keeping the tunnel clear of water, which ‘wept’ into the heading at the rate of 447 gallons a minute.

  fig.  1847.  Tennyson, Princess, VI. 251. Down thro’ her limbs a drooping languor wept. Ibid. (1872), Gareth & Lynette, 213. Barefoot … The Lady of the Lake stood: all her dress Wept from her sides as water flowing away.

  c.  Of a boiler, etc.: To allow small drops of water to percolate or trickle through; to leak in drops from a joint or rivet.

1869.  Sir E. Reed, Shipbuild., i. 11. Every rivet being tested not one of them was found to weep.

1869.  Daily News, 21 Aug. Nearly all new boilers ‘weep’ for the first few weeks.

1886.  R. C. Leslie, Sea Painter’s Log, 31. He will admit, ‘she veeps a trifle in her garboards.’

  d.  Of a sore, etc.: To exude a serous fluid.

1882.  W. Worc. Gloss., Weep, to run as a sore does.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 243. The fluid escapes just as any raw surface weeps. Ibid., VIII. 559. It [i.e., psoriasis] never weeps.

  5.  To hang limply; to droop. Of a tree: To droop its branches. Cf. WEEPING ppl. a. 6.

1764.  Churchill, Gotham, I. 285. The Willow weeping o’er the fatal wave, Where many a Lover finds a watry grave.

1830.  Tennyson, Dying Swan, ii. One willow over the river wept.

1872.  Oliver, Elem. Bot., II. 207. Young plants, raised from seeds of the Weeping Ash…, had a tendency to ‘weep’ in their first branching.

  II.  trans.

  6.  To shed tears over; to lament with tears.

c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., x. 61. Ðæt ðætte oðre menn unaliefedes dot he sceal wepan sun sua his aʓne scylde.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gen. xxxvii. 34. He … weop his sunu lange tide.

a. 1122.  O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 1086. Oððe hwa is swa heard heort þæt ne mæʓ wepan swylces unʓelimpes?

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 1357. Þi fader sin now wepes he.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 2928. Sche wepede weddyng,… ffor scheo had loued longe byfore þe kyng of Denmark.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden, VIII. 95. Þe monkes come unneþe at þe laste, whan þey had longe i-wope [v.r. ywept] þe wrong of her violent out puttynge.

1450–1530.  Myrr. Our Ladye, I. xii. 32. Many … by swetenes of the songe, ar styrred to wayle and to wepe theyr synnes.

1593.  Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. i. 221. His fortunes I will weepe.

1603.  B. Jonson, Sejanus, V. N 2. Now they ’gin to weepe The mischiefe they haue done.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, IX. 648. Nor was I near to close his dying Eyes, To wash his Wounds, to weep his Obsequies.

c. 1726.  Savage, Epist. to Dyer, 54. My sympathizing breast his grief can feel, And my eye weep the wound I cannot heal.

1790.  Cowper, Castaway, ix. No poet wept him: but the page Of narrative sincere … Is wet with Anson’s tear.

1808.  Scott, Marm., V. xvi. A child will weep a bramble’s smart. Ibid. (1825), Talism., xvii. Edith, for whom he dies, will know how to weep his memory.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, iv. 50. Nor is it Wiser to weep a true occasion lost.

1860.  C. Reade, Cloister & Hearth, lxxii. (1896), 209. The princess went barefoot to Loretto, weeping her crime and washing the feet of base born men.

  fig.  1633.  G. Herbert, Temple, Vertue, i. Sweet day,… The dew shall weep thy fall to night, For thou must die.

  7.  To let fall from the eyes, to shed (tears).

  The object is freq. expressed by a synonym, as water, drop, brine, or a hyperbolic term, as flood, sea, rain, etc.

  To weep crocodile tears: to feign grief (see CROCODILE 2).

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 65. Þat þridde þing … is wop þe we for ure synnes wepeð. Ibid., 149. Swiche teares wiep þe holie spuse uppen hire spus.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. V. 44. Þenne Ron Repentaunce and Rehersed þis teeme, And made William to weope watur with his eȝen.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, I. 941. Sithen þat þow hast wopen [v.r. wepen] many a drope.

1588.  Shaks., L. L. L., IV. iii. 33. Thou shin’st in euery teare that I doe weepe. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., III. ii. 84. When we vowe to weepe seas.

1612.  Two Noble K., I. iii. 25. Women That have sod their Infants in … The brine, they wept at killing ’em.

1631.  Milton, Epit. March. Winchester, 56. Here be tears of perfect moan Weept for thee in Helicon. Ibid. (1667), P. L., I. 620. Tears such as Angels weep, burst forth.

1781.  Cowper, Hope, 519. The wretch … Has wept a silent flood, revers’d his ways, Is sober, [etc.].

1819.  Keats, Lamia, II. 66. She … wept a rain Of sorrows at his words.

1853.  Mrs. Gaskell, Ruth, xxv. All tears had been wept out of her long ago.

1891.  Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xxix. The eyes of Nero had to weep crocodile tears.

  b.  fig. Of the heart, or a wound: To weep (tears of) blood.

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 1054. His soft flanke, whose wonted lillie white With purple tears that his wound wept, was drencht.

1605.  B. Jonson, Volpone, III. ii. (1607), F 4 b. My heart Weepes bloud, in anguish.

1613–6.  W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. iii. 49. His wound (yet sore) That grieu’d, it could weepe blood for him no more.

a. 1634[?].  ? Chapman, Rev. for Hon., IV. i. (1659), 48. My heart weeps tears of blood, to see thy age thus like a lofty pine fall.

1718.  Pope, Iliad, XIII. 160. My heart weeps blood to see your glory lost!

  † c.  To weep millstones: cf. MILLSTONE 2 b.

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., I. iv. 245. Clarence. Bid Glouster thinke on this, and he will weepe. 1st Murderer. I Milstones, as he lessoned vs to weepe. [Cf. Ibid., I. iii. 354 Your eyes drop Mill-stones, when Fooles eyes fall Teares.]

  d.  To declare, express, utter with lamentation. Also with forth. rare (chiefly poet.).

1599.  Marston, Ant. & Mel., V. (1602), H 3. Ile weepe my passion to the senselesse trees.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 559. Leontes opening his free Armes, and weeping His Welcomes forth.

1621.  Lady M. Wroth, Urania, 347. Both chain’d togeather … complaining and weeping their sorrowes to those walles.

1782.  Miss Burney, Cecilia, III. ii. The poor woman wept her thanks.

1790.  Cowper, On Receipt Mother’s Picture, 31. I … drew A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu!

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, III. 14. ‘My fault’ she wept ‘my fault! and yet not mine.’

  8.  quasi-trans. with adv. or compl. a. in phrases expressing excessive or prolonged weeping; esp. to weep out one’s eyes or heart.

c. 1290.  St. Lawrence, 40, in S. Eng. Leg., 341. That hadde so much i-wope That he weop out both is eiyene.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., IV. iii. 99. O I could weepe My Spirit from mine eyes.

1630.  Pathomachia, V. iv. 44. I haue wept out mine Eyes for Griefe, I cannot read.

1688.  Prior, Ode Exod. iii. 14, viii. Weep out thy Reason’s, and thy Body’s Eyes.

1887.  F. M. Crawford, Saracinesca, vi. It seemed unspeakably pathetic to hear her weeping her heart out.

  b.  To bring (oneself, another, etc., into a specified state or condition) by weeping. Const. into, to, or with adj. complement.

1591.  Shaks., Two Gent., II. iii. 14. Why my Grandam hauing no eyes, looke you, wept her selfe blinde at my parting. Ibid. (1605), Macb., IV. iii. 2. Let vs seeke out some desolate shade, and there Weepe our sad bosomes empty.

1643.  Trapp, Comm. Gen. l. 1. ‘And Joseph fell upon his fathers face’ as willing to have wept him alive again, if possible.

1647.  R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 108. Weeping her selfe into a stone fountaine.

1818.  Shelley, Rosalind & Helen, 363. But now—’twas the season fair and mild When April has wept itself into May.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, IV. 116. She wept her true eyes blind for such a one.

1891.  Katharine Lee, in Temple Bar, Dec., 600. Phil wept herself to sleep in her sister’s arms.

  c.  with advs. To weep (a thing) back: to recover it by weeping. To weep out: to remove, put out, extinguish, by weeping; also, to expend (one’s life) in weeping. To weep down: to weep until the setting of (the sun).

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., V. i. 48. The sencelesse Brands will sympathize The heauie accent of thy mouing Tongue, And in compassion weepe the fire out. Ibid. (1595), John, IV. iii. 105. I lou’d him, and will weepe My date of life out, for his sweete liues losse. Ibid. (1606), Ant. & Cl., II. vi. 111. Men. Pompey doth this day laugh away his Fortune. Enob. If he do, sure he cannot weep’t backe againe.

1606.  Chapman, Mons. D’Olive, I. i. He like a mortified hermit clad, Sits weeping out his life.

1681.  Flavel, Meth. Grace, xxvi. 453. As it is with the eye when anything offends it, it cannot leave twinkling and watering till it have wept it out.

1726.  Pope, Odyss., XXI. 240. Thus had their joy wept down the setting Sun.

  d.  esp. To weep away: (a) to spend, consume in tears and lamentation; (b) to remove or wash away with tears of commiseration. (Said also of the tears.)

  (a)  1590.  Shaks., Com. Err., II. i. 115. Since that my beautie cannot please his eie, Ile weepe (what’s left away) and weeping die.

1599.  Marston, Antonio’s Rev., V. vi. Ile weepe away my braine In true affections teares.

1705.  Addison, Italy, 2. Mary Magdalene … is said to have wept away the rest of her Life among these solitary Rocks.

1859.  Tennyson, Vivien, 734. Nothing left But into some low cave to crawl, and there … weep my life away.

  (b)  1762.  Sterne, Tr. Shandy, V. iii. My father managed his affliction otherwise;… he neither wept it away, as the Hebrews and the Romans—or slept it off.

1823.  Praed, Australasia, 262. And the mild Charity which day by day Weeps every wound and every stain away.

  9.  To shed (moisture or water) in drops; to exude (a liquid, etc.). Also to weep forth.

1634.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 47. Ormus Iland, has no fresh water, saue what the fruitfull Cloudes weepe ouer her, in sorrow of her desolation.

1651.  Biggs, New Disp., ¶ 79. Celandin weepeth a golden juice.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IV. 248. Groves whose rich Trees wept odorous Gumms and Balme. Ibid., IX. 1003. Skie lowr’d, and muttering Thunder, som sad drops Wept at compleating of the mortal Sin.

1669.  W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 328. Cut a vine in January … you shall find it weep forth a deal of insipid water.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Past., IV. 35. The Knotted Oaks shall show’rs of Honey weep.

1705.  Pope, Spring, 62. And trees weep amber on the banks of Po.

1810.  Scott, Lady of L., III. ix. Forgetful that its branches grew Where weep the heavens their holiest dew On Alpine’s dwelling low.

1860.  Tennyson, Tithonus, 2. The vapours weep their burthen to the ground.

1870.  Edinb. Med. Jrnl., Dec., 514. The surface of the … integument had been weeping a bloody sanies for three days.