Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To express grief for or about; mourn.
  • intransitive verb To regret deeply; deplore.
  • intransitive verb To grieve audibly; wail.
  • intransitive verb To express sorrow or regret. synonym: grieve.
  • noun A feeling or expression of grief; a lamentation.
  • noun A song or poem expressing deep grief or mourning.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To express sorrow; utter words or sounds of grief; mourn audibly; wail.
  • To show great sorrow or regret; repine; chafe; grieve.
  • Synonyms Lament, Mourn, Grieve; sorrow. Lament expresses always, at least figuratively, an external act. Mourn was originally and is still often the same, but does not now suggest anything audible. Grieve suggests more of a consuming effect upon the person sorrowing. See affliction.
  • To bewail; mourn for; bemoan; deplore.
  • To afflict; distress.
  • noun An expression of grief or sorrow; a sad complaint; a lamentation.
  • noun A set form of lamentation or mourning; an elegy; a mourning song or ballad.
  • noun The music for an elegy, or a tune intended to express or excite sorrowful emotion; a mournful air.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To mourn for; to bemoan; to bewail.
  • noun Grief or sorrow expressed in complaints or cries; lamentation; a wailing; a moaning; a weeping.
  • noun An elegy or mournful ballad, or the like.
  • intransitive verb To express or feel sorrow; to weep or wail; to mourn.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An expression of grief, suffering, or sadness.
  • noun A song expressing grief.
  • verb intransitive To express grief.
  • verb transitive To bewail.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a mournful poem; a lament for the dead
  • noun a cry of sorrow and grief
  • verb express grief verbally
  • verb regret strongly
  • noun a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English lementen, from Old French lamenter, from Latin lāmentārī, from lāmentum, lament.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French lamenter, from Latin lāmentor ("I wail, weep"), from lāmenta ("wailings, laments, moanings"); with formative -mentum, from the root *la-, probably ultimately imitative. Also see latrare.

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Examples

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  • I'm pretty sure Michael Flatley had a positively divine dance under this title.

    July 23, 2009