| 释义 |
wailful, a. Chiefly poet.|ˈweɪlfʊl|
[f. wail n. + -ful.]
1. Of cries, complaints, speeches: Having the character of a wail, expressive of grievous pain or sorrow. Of sounds: Resembling a wail, plaintive.
1544Betham Precepts War i. clxiii. H vj, Suche owtecryes and waylefull lamentation of women. a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. Eclog. (1912) 348 Zelmane, whose harte better delighted in wailefull ditties. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. iii. ii. 69 You must lay Lime, to tangle her desires By walefull Sonnets. 1632J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 105 A voice not shreeking or displeasing, but moaning and wailefull. c1750Shenstone Elegy iv. 28 Then..Shall..Innocence indulge a wailful cry. 1834Beckford Italy, etc. II. 283 Her maids sang tirannas with a wailful monotony that wore my very soul out. 1899Whiteing No. 5 John Street xiv. 140 The wailful sweetness of the violin Floats down the hushéd waters of the wind. 1906Sat. Rev. 24 Mar. 361/1 Everyone..was indulging in the vociferous brogue and wailful Irish melody.
2. Full of lamentation, sorrowful.
1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. Feb. 82 Thy Ewes..Like wailefull widdowes hangen their crags. a1763Shenstone Love & Honour 21 She, she alone, amid the wailful train Of captive maids, assigned to Henry's care. 1855M. Arnold Balder Dead i. 176 Then must he not regard the wailful ghosts. 1865Meredith Farina 6 A wailful host were the wives of his raftsmen widowed there by her watery music!
b. transf. Of animals or inanimate things: Producing plaintive sounds.
1818Keats Endym. i. 450 A wailful gnat. 1820― To Autumn 27 Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn. 1872G. Macdonald Wilfrid Cumb. I. xii. 176 A wailful wind made one moaning sweep through the trees. 1885–94Bridges Eros & Psyche Sept. 16 Or e'er he join'd his wailful flock. 1887Meredith Ballads & Poems 157 The tremulous Ever-wailful trees bemoaning him.
†3. Of mournful aspect. Obs.
1557T. Phaer æneid. vii. (1558) T iv, This dolefull dame vpstertes, with waylful wynges [fuscis..alis]. 1577Grange Golden Aphrod. E iij, With wailful weeds I clad my corps. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. I. Hist. Eng. 39/2 They fearing punishment..with wailefull countenance craued mercie.
†4. That is to be bewailed, lamentable. Obs.
a1547Surrey Eccles. iv. 10 That neuer felt the waylfull wrongs that mortall folke receue. ― æneid ii. 6 The Phrygian wealth, and wailful realm [L. lamentabile regnum] of Troy. 1566Gascoigne Jocasta i. i. 12, I must to thee recompte The wailefull thing that is alredy spred. 1587Turberv. Trag. Tales Ep. Ded. to Baynes, Who knew my cares, who wist my wailefull woe. 1590Spenser F.Q. iii. iv. 38 Farre better I it deeme to die with speed, Then waste in woe and wailefull miserie. c1620Breton C'tess Pembroke's Passion (Grosart) 5/2 But if these wept to see his waylefull case: Why dye not I to thinke on his disgrace?
Hence ˈwailfully adv.
1611Cotgr., Doloureusement, dolourously; heavily, sorrowfully, wailefully, most wofully. 1879Meredith Egoist II. 217 The glass did not say so, but the shrunken heart within him did, and wailfully too. 1904J. C. Snaith Broke of Cov. 285 No voice crying in the wilderness can sound more wailfully to human ears. |