v. Forms: 4 bi-, byweile(n, -weylen, -wayle, bywaile, 45 biwaill, -wayle, bywaylen, 46 bewayll, 67 bewaile, -wayle, 6 bewail. [f. BE- + WAIL.]
1. trans. To wail over, to utter wailings or cries of sorrow over, esp. over the dead. Also refl.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 4395. Ded he is of sadel y-falle; Perciens hit byweileth alle.
1475. Caxton, Jason, 18. How they bewaylled eche other.
1611. Bible, Jer. iv. 31. The daughter of Zion that bewaileth herself.
1822. B. Cornwall, Flood Thess., i. 364. Pyrrha, sheltered in a cave, bewaild Her child which perished.
2. To express great sorrow for; to lament loudly, mourn. Also refl.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, IV. 1223. Bywaylynge ay the day that they were borne.
1388. Wyclif, 2 Cor. xii. 21. Y biweile many of hem, that bifor synneden.
1549. Bk. Com. Prayer, Commun. Serv. We knowledge and bewaile our manifold sinnes and wickednes.
1649. Milton, Eikon., Wks. 1738, I. 395. He bewails his want of the Militia.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 3, ¶ 8. These miseries I have often felt and often bewailed.
1880. Dixon, Windsor, III. xiv. 128. Other bards bewailed the dead poet.
b. To mourn or lament the want of.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, VI. 437. Then wild with joy speeds on to taste the wave So long bewaild.
3. intr. To utter lamentations; to lament, mourn.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. vi. 26. For þe same þing songe þou byweyledest and byweptest.
1611. J. Field, in Coryat, Crudities, Pref. Verses. Tom-Piper is gone out and mirth bewailes.
1820. Southey, Wesley, II. 38. Instead of bewailing for him and for herself.
b. with cognate object; see BEWAILED.
¶ In the following passage, the use of bewaile is either very forced (? suggested by the consequences of a wreck), or it is a mere error. The suggestion that it was meant for a derivative of wale to choose is worthless.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vi. 1. As when a ship An hidden rocke escaped hath unwares, That lay in waite her wrack for to bewaile.