WAILING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wailing mean? 

• WAILING (noun)
  The noun WAILING has 1 sense:

1. loud cries made while weeping

  Familiarity information: WAILING used as a noun is very rare.

• WAILING (adjective)
  The adjective WAILING has 1 sense:

1. vocally expressing grief or sorrow or resembling such expression

  Familiarity information: WAILING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WAILING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Loud cries made while weeping

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

bawling; wailing

Hypernyms ("wailing" is a kind of...):

crying; tears; weeping (the process of shedding tears (usually accompanied by sobs or other inarticulate sounds))

Derivation:

wail (emit long loud cries)

• WAILING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Vocally expressing grief or sorrow or resembling such expression

Synonyms:

lamenting; wailful; wailing

Context example:

tangle her desires with wailful sonnets

Similar:

sorrowful (experiencing or marked by or expressing sorrow especially that associated with irreparable loss)

 Context examples 

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said: Then you're thinkin' as it was—A long wailing cry, fiercely sad, from somewhere in the darkness, had interrupted him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

In spite of the swaying of the house and the wailing of the wind, Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

That questing, eternal, ever recurring, thin little wailing voice of man is still ringing in my ears.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The house was still as death, and nothing but the wailing of the wind broke the deep hush.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The other bounded round in an eccentric circle with shrill, wailing cries, and then lying down writhed in agony for some minutes before it also stiffened and lay still.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“No, no; not so soon! She cannot be ready for sea,” said Lady Hamilton, in a wailing voice, clasping her hands and turning up her eyes as she spoke.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I do not believe that the police credit me—on my word, I do not,” said he in a wailing voice.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In truth, the wind, though it was low, had a solemn sound, and crept around the deserted house with a whispered wailing that was very mournful.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Then a dog began to howl somewhere in a farmhouse far down the road—a long, agonised wailing, as if from fear.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Again the next day he pursued his way through the forest, and that evening, thinking to rest again, he lay down as before, but he heard such a howling and wailing that he found it impossible to sleep.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)