Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To weep over; deplore.
  • To bedew or wet with tears; disfigure or mark with the signs of weeping.
  • To weep; make lamentation.

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

  • intransitive verb obsolete To weep.
  • transitive verb To weep over; to deplore; to bedew with tears.

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

  • verb transitive To weep over; weep for; weep about; deplore; lament.
  • verb transitive To bewet with tears, or as with tears.
  • verb intransitive To weep.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English bewepen, biwepen, from Old English bewēpan ("to weep over, mourn, bewail"), from Proto-Germanic *biwōpijanan (“to weep over”), equivalent to be- +‎ weep. Cognate with Old Frisian biwēpa ("to beweep"), Old Saxon biwōpian ("to beweep"). More at be-, weep.

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Examples

  • O ye my friends come forth and help me to beweep my children, ye that have hearts of pity, and ye old and young, weep ye, and I will weep so much that I see not the death of my sons.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 2 1230-1298 1900

  • I shall be dead, do ye to be slain all the noble Jews that be in prison, and thus shall be no house of the Jews, but they shall, against their will, beweep my death.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 2 1230-1298 1900

  • Let Gods, men, brutes, beweep him; plants and stones.

    Myths of the Norsemen From the Eddas and Sagas 1894

  • And whene'er you're absent I pine, and fires * In my heart beweep what it bears of bane:

    Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

  • He spent his last hours wit '. his confessor, wrote to his wife and children, praying his family not to beweep him, not to forget him, and never to offend against their God; and this missive, with a lock of his hair for his beloved daughter, he finally entrusted to the ghostly father.

    Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

  • _Let Gods, men, brutes, beweep him; plants and stones: _

    Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold 1855

  • Let Gods, men, brutes, beweep him; plants and stones!

    Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold 1855

  • Then the Emir Salamah and his wife and household and all the tribesmen donned garbs black-hued and ashes whereupon to sit they strewed, and ungrateful to them was the taste of food and drink, meat and wine; nor ceased they to beweep their loss, nor could they comprehend what had befallen their son and what of ill-lot had descended upon him from Heaven.

    Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

  • But beweep those dearest united days * When thou camest veilèd in secresy;

    Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

  • If aught grateful or acceptable can penetrate the silent graves from our dolour, Calvus, when with sweet regret we renew old loves and beweep the lost friendships of yore, of a surety not so much doth Quintilia mourn her untimely death as she doth rejoice o'er thy constant love.

    The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus 1855

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