[ad. L. lāment-ārī, f. lāment-um LAMENT sb. Cf. F. lamenter.]
1. trans. To express profound sorrow for or concerning; also, in mod. use, to feel sorrow for; to mourn for the loss of (a person); to bewail (an occurrence, etc.: with simple obj. or clause).
1535. Coverdale, Luke xxiii. 37. There folowed him a greate multitude of people and of wemen, which bewayled and lamented him.
1548–9. (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Collect Ash-Wednesday, Wee worthely lamentyng oure synnes.
1611. Bible, 1 Sam. xxv. 1. Samuel died, and all the Israelites … lamented him.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 448. Thammuz came next behind, Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur’d The Syrian Damsels to lament his fate In amorous dittyes all a Summers day.
1712. Hearne, Collect. (O. H. S.), III. 453. He died in the 32d Year of his Age, and is much lamented.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), IV. 94. This stone laments the death of Andrea Pisano.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxx. For your own sake I lament this.
1801. Med. Jrnl., V. 559. As she was thus lamenting her situation, she was seized by a very violent convulsive fit.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), II. vi. 12. The parliament had lamented that the duties of the religious houses were left unfulfilled.
2. intr. To express (also, simply, to feel) profound grief; to mourn passionately. Const. for, rarely after; also with indirect pass.
1530. Palsgr., 603/2. I lamente, I make mone for a losse, je lamente.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, lxxxii. 256. It wolde haue made a hard herte to lament.
1595. Locrine, III. i. 160. He loves not most that doth lament the most.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1638), 106. Greatly lamented for by all the Christians in Syria.
1611. Bible, 1 Sam. vii. 2. All the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 671. Adam was all in tears, and to his guide Lamenting turnd full sad.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 743. Her Children gone, The Mother Nightingale laments alone.
1738. Glover, Leonidas, I. 245. Forget not her, who now for thee laments.
1830. Tennyson, Dying Swan, 7. With an inner voice the river ran, Adown it floated a dying swan, And loudly did lament.
b. refl. in the same sense. arch.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, II. vii. Because he does not cry out and lament himself, like those of a childish or effeminate temper.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1775), 124. (Fragment) The poor notary … lamented himself as he walk’d along in this manner.
1788. Charlotte Smith, Emmeline (1816), IV. 178. She … bursts into tears, and laments herself over him.
1850. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863), 99. When Hugolin returned, he began to lament himself because of the robbery.
† 3. causative. To cause grief to, distress. Obs.
1580. Lupton, Sivqila, I. 131. What paines he hath put me to euer since, bothe nighte and day, it would lament you if you knewe it.
1583. Stocker, trans. Civ. Warres Lowe C., I. 113 a. It greatly lamenteth, and maruellously amazeth vs.
1704. in Ashton, Social Life Q. Anne (1882), I. 124. He lay much Lamented and wonderfully affrighted with the Old Woman coming to afflict him.
