BEWAIL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does bewail mean? 

• BEWAIL (verb)
  The verb BEWAIL has 1 sense:

1. regret strongly

  Familiarity information: BEWAIL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEWAIL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they bewail    ... he / she / it bewails   
Past simple: bewailed   
Past participle: bewailed   
-ing form: bewailing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Regret strongly

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

bemoan; bewail; deplore; lament

Context example:

we lamented the loss of benefits

Hypernyms (to "bewail" is one way to...):

complain; kick; kvetch; plain; quetch; sound off (express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

She was so pathetic in her sobbing and bewailing, that I felt as if I had said I don't know what to hurt her.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She was a poor woman now, who had lost her only child, and who was bewailing it.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So they laid her down upon a bier, and all seven watched and bewailed her three whole days; and then they thought they would bury her: but her cheeks were still rosy; and her face looked just as it did while she was alive; so they said, We will never bury her in the cold ground.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

She was preparing for her ninth lying-in; and after bewailing the circumstance, and imploring their countenance as sponsors to the expected child, she could not conceal how important she felt they might be to the future maintenance of the eight already in being.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It was the strain of a forsaken lady, who, after bewailing the perfidy of her lover, calls pride to her aid; desires her attendant to deck her in her brightest jewels and richest robes, and resolves to meet the false one that night at a ball, and prove to him, by the gaiety of her demeanour, how little his desertion has affected her.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

They agreed that Mrs. Bennet should only hear of the departure of the family, without being alarmed on the score of the gentleman's conduct; but even this partial communication gave her a great deal of concern, and she bewailed it as exceedingly unlucky that the ladies should happen to go away just as they were all getting so intimate together.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

She sat down in one corner of the room, and began to bewail her hard fate; when on a sudden the door opened, and a droll-looking little man hobbled in, and said, Good morrow to you, my good lass; what are you weeping for?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Joining these groups, I found bewailing women whose husbands were away in herring or oyster boats, which there was too much reason to think might have foundered before they could run in anywhere for safety.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Soon after this the sexton came to the house on a visit, and the father bewailed his trouble, and told him how his younger son was so backward in every respect that he knew nothing and learnt nothing.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The young princess, you may be sure, was not long in saying Yes to all this; and as they spoke a gay coach drove up, with eight beautiful horses, decked with plumes of feathers and a golden harness; and behind the coach rode the prince’s servant, faithful Heinrich, who had bewailed the misfortunes of his dear master during his enchantment so long and so bitterly, that his heart had well-nigh burst.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)