- present participle of wail.
wailing
Americanadjective
-
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.
-
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.
-
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
-
wailings
plural
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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.
-
an act or instance of complaining, protesting, etc..
“All art is propaganda, despite the wailing of purists,” she sneered.
-
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.
See Examples For:
During Arbaeen, they show their grief, mourning with weeping and wailing in memory of Hussein.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
As Héctor and the other paramedic, Julio César Vega, 28, entered the premises, a woman ran in wailing.
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026
The 17-year-old Pliny was at Misenum, approximately 18 miles from the volcano, but even there “you could hear the wailing of women, the cries of babies, the shouting of men.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026
His team is languishing until Sonny gets behind the wheel and Robert Plant starts wailing and John Bonham begins bashing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
On and on they went, wailing like paid mourners at a funeral.
From "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" by Bette Bao Lord
It’s more like a Wagnerian music-drama, a somber story built around intimations of doom and orchestrated with a soundtrack of pounding drums and high-pitched wailings and ululations.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 21, 2021
During one Loueke showcase, his distorted voice occupied the same trebly range as his guitar wailings and scrapings.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 9, 2017
I get annoyed by Alejandro González Iñárritu’s self-aggrandizement, his operatic wailings on the behalf of genius artists besieged by critics.
From Slate ● Feb. 18, 2015
He testily advised him “to leave the predictions of Cassandra and the wailings of Jeremiah backstage.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 27, 2010
He was passing by the palace-gate when the sighs and wailings of a woman sitting at the window of a house, on the road-side, attracted his attention.
From Folk-Tales of Bengal by Lal Behari Day
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.
