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weeping

[wee-ping]
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adjective
  1. expressing grief, sorrow, or any overwhelming emotion by shedding tears: weeping multitudes.
  2. tearful; weepy: a weeping fit.
  3. tending or liable to cry; given to crying.
  4. dripping or oozing liquid.
  5. (of trees, shrubs, etc.) having slender, drooping branches.
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Origin of weeping

before 900; Middle English; Old English wepende. See weep1, -ing2
Related formsweep·ing·ly, adverbun·weep·ing, adjective

weep1

[weep]
verb (used without object), wept, weep·ing.
  1. to express grief, sorrow, or any overpowering emotion by shedding tears; shed tears; cry: to weep for joy; to weep with rage.
  2. to let fall drops of water or other liquid; drip; leak: The old water tank was weeping at the seams.
  3. to exude water or liquid, as soil, a rock, a plant stem, or a sore.
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verb (used with object), wept, weep·ing.
  1. to weep for (someone or something); mourn with tears or other expression of sorrow: He wept his dead brother.
  2. to shed (tears); pour forth in weeping: to weep tears of gratitude.
  3. to let fall or give forth in drops: trees weeping an odorous gum.
  4. to pass, bring, put, etc., to or into a specified condition with the shedding of tears (usually followed by away, out, etc.): to weep one's eyes out; to weep oneself to sleep.
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noun
  1. weeping, or a fit of weeping.
  2. the exudation of water or liquid.
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Origin of weep1

before 900; Middle English wepen, Old English wēpan to wail; cognate with Gothic wōpjan to call, Old Norse æpa to cry out

Synonyms

See more synonyms for weep on Thesaurus.com
1. sob; wail, lament. 4. bewail, bemoan, lament.

Antonyms

1. laugh, rejoice.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for weeping

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • If the boys had not appeared we might now be weeping in a melancholy row.

  • Her eyes were red with weeping, and her hair was in disorder.

    Weighed and Wanting

    George MacDonald

  • She was too terrified to add her weeping to the wail of the wind—it would have been too ghastly.

    Dust

    Mr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius

  • I pictured them in four separate heaps in the snow, all weeping.

    A Woman Tenderfoot

    Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson

  • He was looking steadfastly at his grandmother and weeping piteously.

British Dictionary definitions for weeping

weeping

adjective
  1. (of plants) having slender hanging branches
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Derived Formsweepingly, adverb

weep

verb weeps, weeping or wept
  1. to shed (tears) as an expression of grief or unhappiness
  2. (tr foll by out) to utter, shedding tears
  3. (when intr, foll by for) to mourn or lament (for something)
  4. to exude (drops of liquid)
  5. (intr) (of a wound, etc) to exude a watery or serous fluid
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noun
  1. a spell of weeping
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Word Origin

Old English wēpan; related to Gothic wōpjan, Old High German wuofan, Old Slavonic vabiti to call
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for weeping

weep

v.

Old English wepan "shed tears, cry" (class VII strong verb; past tense weop, past participle wopen), from Proto-Germanic *wopjan (cf. Old Norse op, Old High German wuof "shout, shouting, crying," Old Saxon wopian, Gothic wopjan "to shout, cry out, weep"), from PIE *wab- "to cry, scream" (cf. Latin vapulare "to be flogged;" Old Church Slavonic vupiti "to call," vypu "gull"). Weeping willow (cf. French saule pleureur, German trauerweide) is recorded from 1731. The tree is native to Asia; the first brought to England were imported 1748, from the Euphrates. Replaced cypress as a funerary emblem.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper