OE Wulfstan Pastoral Let. (Hatton) (1957) 230 Ðær [sc. in hell] is sorgung & sargung, & a singal heof.

a1350 in G. L. Brook Harley Lyrics (1968) 50 Sykyng, Sorewyng, ant Þoht, þo þre me han in bale broht.

c1390 Vision St. Paul (Vernon) in C. Horstmann Minor Poems Vernon MS (1892) i. 257 Of heore serwyng was muche wondur.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 1269 I haue liued so mani a yere, Ai in strijf and soruuing stad.

1483 tr. Adam of Eynsham Reuelation xxv. f. 31 Their voycys of wepyng and sorowyng was exaltyd and lyfte vppe.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 273/1 Sorowing or wayling, deploration.

1596 E. Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene vi. iii. sig. Bb2 They..Bring vs bale and bitter sorrowings . View more context for this quotation

1613 W. Browne Britannia's Pastorals I. i. 10 Her beauty was the sting, That caused all that instant sorrowing.

a1676 R. Cromwell Let. in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1898) 13 93 God can isshew all for good & turne our feare, and sorrowings into joy.

1721 D. Waterland Serm. before Sons of Clergy (1722) 36 Amidst our Sorrowings for the Ravages made by Avarice at Home.

1793 T. Coke Extracts Jrnl. 5 Visits Amer. v. i. 166 I saw and felt such infinite defects in myself, such want of entire purity, and such a sweet kind of sorrowing before God.

1815 W. Wordsworth White Doe of Rylstone vii. 118 This lovely Chronicler of things Long past, delights and sorrowings.

1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda II. iv. xxxi. 278 Sorrowing is your sauce; you can take nothing without it.

1914 E. R. Burroughs Tarzan of Apes ix. 112 He fell upon the body of Kala and sobbed out the pitiful sorrowing of his lonely heart.

1948 M. Deasy Hour of Spring xiv. 173 It might be pleasant to them maybe to see a man walking above them..that had his own sins and his own delight hot on him, and not the sorrowings of great grief.

1991 B. Okri Famished Road (1992) i. i. 3 There was much feasting, playing, and sorrowing.

OE Crist III 889 Þær mon mæg sorgende folc gehyran hygegeomor, hearde gefysed, cearum cwiþende cwicra gewyrhtu, forhte afærde.

1534 Prymer in Eng. sig. D.ij^v He soroweth y^t he hathe synned agaynste his maker & redeemer..this broken & sorowynge spryte is vnto the a sacryfyce of most swete sauoure.

1591 R. Johnson Musarum Plangores sig. B4 My sorrowing playmates shrink, and kepe a loofe, As if a darth did couer all the land.

c1615 W. Mure Misc. Poems xii. 3 My sorowing sighes..do not dispyse.

a1672 A. Bradstreet Wks. (1962) 41 When by the Ruines oft I past, My sorrowing eyes aside did cast.

1705 G. Stanhope Paraphr. Epist. & Gospels II. 296 The condition of all sorrowing Penitents.

a1791 R. Burns Poems & Songs (1968) I. 376 We solemnize this sorrowing natal day, To prove our loyal truth.

1817 P. B. Shelley Laon & Cythna ii. x. 37 The sorrowing gale Waked in those ruins grey its everlasting wail.

1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. II. v. ii. 283 Known by and by as Girondins, to the sorrowing wonder of the world.

1888 M. E. Braddon Fatal Three I. vi. 120 He had not the nerve to go into the cottage and face that sorrowing widow.

1919 Colorado Med. June 159/1 We extend to the sorrowing family and friends our most sincere sympathy in their bereavement.

1988 B. Sidhwa Ice-candy-man xxvi. 213 What can a sorrowing woman do but wail?

2004 New Yorker 15 Mar. 72/3 He carefully learned the elaborate, sorrowing, furious culture of el exilio.