Also -ade. [a. F. jérémiade (1762 in Hatz.-Darm.), f. Jérémie, L. Jeremias Jeremiah, in reference to the ‘Lamentations of Jeremiah’ in the Old Testament.] A lamentation; a writing or speech in a strain of grief or distress; a doleful complaint; a complaining tirade; a lugubrious effusion.
1780. Han. More, in W. Roberts, Mem. (1834), I. 186. It has been long the fashion to make the most lamentable Jeremiades on the badness of the times.
1791–1823. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit., Prediction. I have been occasionally struck at the Jeremiads of honest George Withers.
1844. W. H. Maxwell, Sports & Adv. Scotl., xv. (1853), 140. The lady commenced a Jeremiade.
1875. Helps, Ess., Convers. Railway Carriage, 192. I could sit down, and mourn, and utter doleful Jeremiads without end.
