Library / English Dictionary

WAIL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

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 ("wail" is a kind of...):

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

Derivation:

wail (cry weakly or softly)

wail (emit long loud cries)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cry weakly or softly

Example:

she wailed with pain

Synonyms:

mewl; pule; wail; whimper

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

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

cry; weep (shed tears because of sadness, rage, or pain)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

wail (a cry of sorrow and grief)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Emit long loud cries

Example:

howl with sorrow

Synonyms:

howl; roar; ululate; wail; yaup; yawl

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

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

call; cry; holler; hollo; scream; shout; shout out; squall; yell (utter a sudden loud cry)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wail"):

squall; waul; wawl (make high-pitched, whiney noises)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sentence examples:

You can hear animals wail in the meadows

The meadows wail with animals

Derivation:

wail (a cry of sorrow and grief)

wailer (a mourner who utters long loud high-pitched cries)

wailing (loud cries made while weeping)

Credits

 Context examples: 

When a couple of hours had passed I heard something stirring in the Count's room, something like a sharp wail quickly suppressed; and then there was silence, deep, awful silence, which chilled me.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I remember his wail at the meeting, which began: 'In fifty years experience of scientific intercourse—'

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

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

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The droning sound swelled louder upon our ears until it became one long, deep wail of distress.

(The Return 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)

Again shall you raise the funeral wail, and the sound of your lamentations shall again and again be heard!

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I pulled off my shoes and stockings, and, wailing two or three hundred yards, I found the object to approach nearer by force of the tide; and then plainly saw it to be a real boat, which I supposed might by some tempest have been driven from a ship.

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

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)

So for five long minutes the gallant horsemen of Spain and of France strove ever and again to force a passage, until the wailing note of a bugle called them back, and they rode slowly out of bow-shot, leaving their best and their bravest in the ghastly, blood-mottled heap behind them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So terrible was his appearance that Spitz was forced to forego disciplining him; but to cover his own discomfiture he turned upon the inoffensive and wailing Billee and drove him to the confines of the camp.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)