bemoan
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to express distress or grief over; lament.
to bemoan one's fate.
-
to regard with regret or disapproval.
verb
Other Word Forms
- bemoaningly adverb
- unbemoaned adjective
Etymology
Origin of bemoan
before 1000; be- + moan; replacing bemene, Middle English bimenen, Old English bimǣnan ( bi- be- + mǣnan to moan)
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.
Even the prosecutor touring a buried villa that’s become a crime scene, illegally stripped of its frescoes, bemoans what’s been lost when thieves rob a people of their ancestors’ memories.
From Los Angeles Times
Ravanelli, reportedly the highest-paid man in the league, scored at almost the same rate he bemoaned the club's professionalism in the Italian press, suggesting Juventus coaches were having to fax him fitness plans.
From BBC
While Farrell bemoaned Ireland's inability to convert the type of chances they had gobbled up against England, there were positives.
From BBC
Recently, I bemoaned that a movie like Sony’s “Goat” stood as further proof that talking-animal animated films had mostly run their course.
From Los Angeles Times
The 12 children, whose ages stretch from 9 to the late teens, devote themselves to making fun of the parents, bemoaning society’s demise and camping on the beach.
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.
