wail Hear it!

wail Definition

wail (wāl)

intransitive verb

  1. to express grief or pain by long, loud cries
  2. to make a plaintive, sad, crying sound the wind wailing in the trees
  3. Jazz, Slang to play in an intense or inspired manner

Etymology: ME wailen < ON væla, to lament < , woe

transitive verb

  1. to lament; mourn to wail someone's death
  2. to cry out in mourning or lamentation

noun

  1. a long, pitiful cry of grief and pain
  2. a sound like this
  3. the act of wailing

Related Forms:

wail Synonyms

wail

v.

moan, weep, lament; see cry 1, mourn 1. See syn. study at cry.

wail Usage Examples

Object

  • siren: The only sounds that remained there were cries of pain, the wail ambulance sirens... Where are the children?
  • harmonica: Their sound includes off-kilter lyrics, blues guitar jangle and wailing harmonica, low down funky drums and fat jazz double bass.
  • cry: Staff working late in the Abbey have heard an eerie wailing cry coming down the corridors.
  • guitar: The lyre and harp soundtrack was replaced with wailing heavy metal guitars.
  • solo: Long self indulgent wailing guitar solos became a thing of the past.
  • vocal: This is a circumspect simple track with slow plodding bass sharing main duties with a looped wailing female vocal.

Converse of object

  • hear: One night I saw a crowd on a street and heard piteous wails.

Adjective modifier

  • mournful: Their mournful wails float through the branches in the vein Edgar Allen Poe.

Modifying Another Word

  • loudly: One fine day all sirens in a secret military installation south of Moscow begin to wail loudly.
  • away: Level is the closest Jack comes on the record to wailing away on his guitar and flat-out rocking.
  • no: Now, please, ladies - no wailing, no flailing, no suicides, no tears.
  • much: And far, far too much wailing and hysterical laughter.
  • again: Problem happily resolved, the women began to wail again.
  • long: Now, she hears the shout of Bannockburn; and now, the long wail of Flodden.

Followed by an intransitive particle

  • out: At last, a band that remember how to rock - and how to wail out their vocals.

Used with why or when

  • that: There is a high pitched wail that makes it almost compulsory to put your fingers in your ears.
  • when: Honestly, readers - you should have seen him wail when I beat him at pool twice in a row.

Preposition: of

  • siren: Eerily, the soul tearing sound mutated into the wailing of the warning siren on the building site.
  • despair: From high in the air, with a wail of despair, She fell in a downward direction.

Preposition: like

  • banshee: A ghost is also said to haunt the vicinity wailing like a banshee.
wail Quotes

Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night, Brother to Death, in silent darkness born, Relieve my languish and restore the light; With dark forgetting of my care return. And let the day be time enough to mourn The shipwreck of my ill adventured youth: Let waking eyes suffice to wail their scorn Without the torment of the night's untruth.

—Daniel, Samuel

But when I plead, she bids me play my part, And when I weep, she says tears are but water: And when I sigh, she says I know the art, And when I wail, she turns herself to laughter.

—Spenser, Edmund

Browse dictionary entries near wail

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  4. wahoo
  5. wahine
  6. Wahhabite
  7. Wahhabism
  8. Wahhabi
  9. Wahabism
  10. Wahabi
  1. wailer
  2. wailful
  3. wailfully
  4. Wailing Wall
  5. wain
  6. wainscot
  7. wainscoted
  8. wainscoting
  9. wainscotted
  10. wainscotting