c1300 Childhood Jesus (Laud) 154 in C. Horstmann Altengl. Legenden (1875) 1st Ser. 7 Þat child..Swiþe i heorde here pleyning.

c1390 G. Chaucer Parson's Tale 84 Penitence is the pleynynge [v.r. pleyneinge, laynyng] of man for the gilt that he hath doon.

a1425 (a1400) Prick of Conscience (Galba & Harl.) (1863) 6104 Þe day of pleynyng and accusyng, Þe day of answer and of strait rekkenyng.

a1475 Sidrak & Bokkus (Lansd.) (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Washington) (1965) 10654 (MED) Wiþ-outen pleyninge of any ille..whann þat he shal deie, Þe grete peyne can no man seie.

c1475 tr. A. Chartier Quadrilogue (Univ. Coll. Oxf.) (1974) 183 (MED) Of suche comyth the clamours and playnynges whiche ben more replete of ease than we be.

1589 R. Greene Menaphon sig. G3 Since such anguish is fruitelesse, and these plainings bootlesse; comfort your self with the hope of the liuing, and omit the teares for the dead.

1601 Marie Magdalens Lament. iv. sig. Ei It seemes too strange that he, He whom I seeke, and hee for whom I weepe, Should to my plainings thus estranged be.

1633 P. Fletcher Piscatorie Eclogs i. ii. 1 in Purple Island Haplesse Thelgon (a poore fisher-swaine) Came from his boat to tell the rocks his plaining.

1725 Brazen Age Banish'd 3 Now, now, Hibernia give thy plainings o'er, And shout thy Transports from thy farthest Shore.

1771 M. S. Montague Orig. Ess. on Woman 41 Attend soft Whately's sympathetic Flow The tender Plainings of melodious Woe.

1818 J. Keats Endymion ii. 75 Away she flew To Jove's high throne, and by her plainings drew Immortal tear-drops down the thunderer's beard.

1846 ‘C. Winterfield’ Adventures on Frontier Texas & Mexico in Amer. Rev. 3 iii. 19 Again I heard that voice of death-like anguish—stifled into a low plaining—then bursting out again into louder and wilder shrieks of despairing terror.

1880 W. Watson Prince's Quest 31 As a low wind wails..About a tarn whereof the listless wave Maketh no answer to its plaining.

1902 J. Payne Poet. Wks. II. xii. 127 What sighing is that the breezes bore? What plaining is that which shrilleth o'er The note of the nightingale?

1990 K. Pite in Ess. in Crit. 40 299 The familiar moods of grief, of plaining, fall short of the bereavement she suffers.

?c1475 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 15562) f. 97 Plenynge, querulus [altered from quelurus].

1532 (c1385) Usk's Test. Loue in Wks. G. Chaucer i. f. cccxxix^v Amonge thy playnyng wordes..thou allegest thynges to be lettyng of thyne helpynge.

1594 C. Marlowe & T. Nashe Dido iv. i. sig. E1 Hear, hear, O, hear Iarbas' plaining prayers.

?a1603 E. Grymeston Miscelanea (1604) xiii. sig. F The prayers, that a plaining heart with sorowing sighs to thee doth send.

1645 J. Milton Passion vii, in Poems 19 Yet on the softned Quarry would I score My plaining vers as lively as before.

c1725 A. Ramsay To D. Malloch in Poems (1728) II. 258 He that could in tender Strains Raise Margaret's plaining Shade.

1796 S. T. Coleridge in R. Southey Joan of Arc ii. 253 The winds breathe hollow, deem'd the plaining groan Of prison'd spirits.

1814 H. F. Cary tr. Dante Vision I. v. 19 Now 'gin the rueful wailings to be heard. Now am I come where many a plaining voice Smites on mine ear.

1889 W. B. Yeats Wanderings of Oisin 112 Cures for calves with plaining throat.

1891 M. M. Dowie Girl in Karpathians 104 The plaining doves are absent from the high fir-tree tops.

1901 J. W. De Forest Downing Legends 161 Then he thought the plaining tone Was like his darling Esther's own.