- present participle of wail.
wailing
Americanadjective
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uttering a prolonged, inarticulate, mournful cry, usually high-pitched or clear-sounding, as in grief or suffering.
In the village we passed a funeral procession, the wailing widow following behind the body of her husband.
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making a mournful sound, as a siren, music, the wind, etc..
A wailing police siren nears, passes, and fades.
-
complaining, protesting, whining, or crying.
He rubbed the bare foot of the wailing toddler and planted a kiss on it.
They’re always trying to correct the market, usually in the interests of some wailing pressure group.
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Slang. expressing emotion musically or verbally in an exciting, satisfying way.
The song celebrates with a Cajun-flavored stomp accompanied by a wailing fiddle and screaming electric guitar.
noun
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a mournful cry or sound, or the act of making such a sound.
The wailing of the mourners rose and fell, merging with the drums and the shaman’s chants.
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an act or instance of complaining, protesting, etc..
“All art is propaganda, despite the wailing of purists,” she sneered.
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Slang. the act of expressing emotion musically or verbally in an exciting, satisfying way.
At this live show from 1974, the soulful wailing of the chorus in the background is utterly spine-tingling.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of wailing
First recorded in 1350–1400; wail ( def. ) + -ing 2 ( def. ) for the adjective senses; wail ( def. ) + -ing 1 ( def. ) for the noun senses
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Wailing relatives approached the town’s medical workers, not knowing where to take the dead.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 27, 2023
The comments section has become a sort of digital Wailing Wall for the country.
From New York Times • Sep. 9, 2022
Wailing away on his Gibson Les Paul, with its custom paint job in full flower, he's not doing it for us.
From Salon • Jun. 18, 2022
A symbolic extension of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the artwork is a “wall for healing,” Abramovic told Reuters in an interview ahead of the ceremony.
From Reuters • Oct. 6, 2021
Arya slept in a shallow niche in the cavernous vaults beneath the Wailing Tower, on a bed erf straw.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
