weary
Americanadjective
-
wearier,
comparative
-
weariest
superlative
-
physically or mentally exhausted by hard work, exertion, strain, etc.; fatigued; tired.
weary eyes;
a weary brain.
- Antonyms:
- energetic
-
characterized by or causing fatigue.
a weary journey.
-
impatient or dissatisfied with something (often followed byof ).
weary of excuses.
-
characterized by or causing impatience or dissatisfaction; tedious; irksome.
a weary wait.
- Antonyms:
- interesting
verb (used with or without object)
-
wearies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wearied,
past participle, past
-
wearying
present participle
-
to make or become weary; fatigue or tire.
The long hours of work have wearied me.
- Synonyms:
- exhaust
-
to make or grow impatient or dissatisfied with something or at having too much of something (often followed byof ).
The long drive had wearied us of desert scenery.
We had quickly wearied at such witless entertainment.
- Antonyms:
- interest
adjective
-
tired or exhausted
-
causing fatigue or exhaustion
-
caused by or suggestive of weariness
a weary laugh
-
(postpositive; often foll by of or with) discontented or bored, esp by the long continuance of something
verb
-
to make or become weary
-
to make or become discontented or impatient, esp by the long continuance of something
Synonym Usage
See tired 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
wearinessnoun
-
outwearyverb (used with object)
-
self-wearyadjective
-
unwearyadjective
-
unwearyingadjective
-
wearyingadjective
-
wearilyadverb
-
wearyinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wearysimple
-
weariessimple
-
have weariedperfect
-
has weariedperfect
-
am wearyingprogressive
-
are wearyingprogressive
-
is wearyingprogressive
-
have been wearyingperfect progressive
-
has been wearyingperfect progressive
Past
-
weariedsimple
-
had weariedperfect
-
was wearyingprogressive
-
were wearyingprogressive
-
had been wearyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of weary
First recorded before 900; (adjective) Middle English wery, Old English wērig; cognate with Old Saxon -wōrig; akin to Old English wōrian “to crumble, break down, totter”; (verb) Middle English werien, Old English wēr(i)gian, derivative of the adjective
Explanation
Weary as an adjective means "very tired or worn out," like weary students who finished a long week of studying and taking tests. Weary comes from the Old English word werig, meaning "tired." It can also describe being extremely bored and sick of something, like on a long drive, you might grow weary of your father's singing voice. As a verb, weary means "to exhaust or wear out," like when the children you are babysitting weary you with their game of running away every time you tell them to get ready to leave the park.
Vocabulary lists containing weary
Unit 1: Telling Details
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Emotions on Display
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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:
“We’ve talked to everyone we can,” Al-Drimly said, his voice weary.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
“I’m just a weary pilgrim trying to find what feels like home,” she sings.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026
Dogs snored next to their owners, who were glued to their phones, screens lighting up weary faces.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
He's weary, but at least has a story to tell about his day.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
On Midsummer-eve, Adèle, weary with gathering wild strawberries in Hay Lane half the day, had gone to bed with the sun.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
As time passes, you see two smiling, handsome young men change, gradually appearing wearier as war strips away their innocence.
From BBC ● May 25, 2023
Golovkin finally upped his work rate and made progress against a wearier Canelo in the late rounds, but it wasn’t enough.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 17, 2022
And the seemingly endless restrictions leave more ordinary Chinese people wearier by the day.
From New York Times ● Sep. 5, 2022
But Radha is older, wearier and more beaten down than Nola, and she takes a while longer to take ownership of her story.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2020
The man behind the desk looked like an older, much wearier version of Chris.
From "The Dead and the Gone" by Susan Beth Pfeffer
That it happens this way every year, offering an annual day of hope to even the weariest baseball cities, remains somehow powerful.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 30, 2023
The sun has barely set on a roaring summer concert season and a busy fall slate ensures there will be no rest for even the weariest local music fans.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 8, 2022
The under-fire Steve Bruce must have met news of Ronaldo’s return with the weariest of sighs.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 11, 2021
Cruise seems weariest of all, flogging outdated merchandise he can’t even pretend to believe in.
From Slate ● Jun. 8, 2017
Do I take both before dinner, which is usually about 7:30, leaving an unbroken two-and-a-half-hour stretch when I’m weariest, between 8:30 and 11:00?
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
But numerous media reports suggest that he has been marginalised as Trump wearies of being controlled and seeks to cut loose.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 30, 2018
“Joy wearies me, and I hate happiness when I catch a glimpse of it in a human expression,” he told Newsweek in 1963.
From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2017
A 100-year-old scarlet oak has some privileges when it suddenly wearies.
From Time Magazine Archive
It wearies me to be thought of as timid, when I've had to do things that were so risky as to be almost crazy.
From Time Magazine Archive
One wearies of this perpetual character's perpetual library, crowded, as it always is, with the latest French and German monographs.
From Essays on Modern Novelists by William Lyon Phelps
This was not something you could have accused her of over the summer, and was perhaps a sign of a body and mind wearied by nine months on the road.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2025
But Riggs delivered a message of hope for Americans wearied by attacks on voting rights.
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2025
She recounted to The Washington Post in 2011 how she had already wearied of the rigors of the road before her first stroke.
From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2024
There’s even the odd love song, in which Williams’ grizzled voice shades in the heartbreak with wearied affection.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2024
At last wearied with his cares Sam drowsed, leaving the morrow till it came; he could do no more.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
At first it was staggering, the boom, boom, boom, watching both players crack heavy serve after heavy serve, but it started to become a little wearying, like watching an extended game of Whac-A-Mole.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
That’s not to say that “Our Little Secret” isn’t enjoyable all on its own, only that it’s become wearying to watch Lohan confined to the limits of a holiday movie made for a streamer.
From Salon ● Dec. 3, 2024
In the fall of 1982, after two wearying years of quarantines that ultimately extended through six counties and some 3,000 square miles, California declared victory.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2024
Written by Ruby Caster and directed by Emma Westenberg, “Bleeding Love” drifts and lurches for a wearying 102 minutes.
From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
‘No! For I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to; the long explanations needed by the young are wearying.’
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
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.
