Library / English Dictionary

LAMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A mournful poem; a lament for the dead

Synonyms:

elegy; lament

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

poem; verse form (a composition written in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines)

Derivation:

lament (express grief verbally)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person

Synonyms:

coronach; dirge; lament; requiem; threnody

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

song; vocal (a short musical composition with words)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lament"):

keen (a funeral lament sung with loud wailing)

Derivation:

lament (express grief verbally)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A cry of sorrow and grief

Example:

their pitiful laments could be heard throughout the ward

Synonyms:

lament; lamentation; plaint; wail

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

complaint ((formerly) a loud cry (or repeated cries) of pain or rage or sorrow)

Derivation:

lament (express grief verbally)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Regret strongly

Example:

we lamented the loss of benefits

Synonyms:

bemoan; bewail; deplore; lament

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

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

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

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They lament that there was a traffic accident

Derivation:

lamentable (bad; unfortunate)

lamenter (a person who is feeling grief (as grieving over someone who has died))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Express grief verbally

Example:

we lamented the death of the child

Synonyms:

keen; lament

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

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

express emotion; express feelings (give verbal or other expression to one's feelings)

"Lament" entails doing...:

grieve; sorrow (feel grief)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

lament (a mournful poem; a lament for the dead)

lament (a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person)

lament (a cry of sorrow and grief)

lamentation (the passionate and demonstrative activity of expressing grief)

lamentation (a cry of sorrow and grief)

lamenter (a person who is feeling grief (as grieving over someone who has died))

Credits

 Context examples: 

I lamented my own folly and wilfulness, in attempting a second voyage, against the advice of all my friends and relations.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I take off my ring, I wear my worst clothes, I use no bear's grease, and I frequently lament over the late Miss Larkins's faded flower.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was half beside myself with glee; and if ever I despised a man, it was old Tom Redruth, who could do nothing but grumble and lament.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It was a favorite ditty of the late lamented Professor Moriarty.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

That the northland still drew him, they knew; for at night they sometimes heard him crying softly; and when the north wind blew and the bite of frost was in the air, a great restlessness would come upon him and he would lift a mournful lament which they knew to be the long wolf-howl.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I had depended on her fortitude too far, and the blow was a severe one—but had her marriage been happy, so young as I then was, a few months must have reconciled me to it, or at least I should not have now to lament it.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

He did justice to his very gentlemanlike appearance, his air of elegance and fashion, his good shaped face, his sensible eye; but, at the same time, must lament his being very much under-hung, a defect which time seemed to have increased; nor could he pretend to say that ten years had not altered almost every feature for the worse.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

In the present instance, she confessed and lamented her want of knowledge, declared that she would give anything in the world to be able to draw; and a lecture on the picturesque immediately followed, in which his instructions were so clear that she soon began to see beauty in everything admired by him, and her attention was so earnest that he became perfectly satisfied of her having a great deal of natural taste.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Yes, she laments it; yet owns it may have been best.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

When he got down, the five of them were sitting screaming and lamenting quite piteously, each out-doing the other.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)