Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Vocally expressing grief or sorrow: Describes a sound or person that is crying out loudly in sadness, pain, or distress.
   • Resembling such an expression: Describes a sound, like the wind, that is long, high-pitched, and mournful, similar to a cry of grief.

2. Noun:

   • Loud cries made while weeping: The act of uttering prolonged, high-pitched sounds of mourning, lamentation, or intense sadness.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The wailing child could not be comforted. (The child crying out in grief could not be comforted.)
  • We heard the wailing sound of the sirens in the distance. (We heard the long, mournful sound of the sirens.)
• Noun:
  • The wailing of the mourners filled the cemetery. (The loud cries of the mourners filled the cemetery.)
  • A sudden wailing came from the next room. (A sudden burst of loud crying came from the next room.)

Advanced Usage

• Used to describe atmospheric or environmental sounds: Often applied to non-human sounds that evoke a feeling of sorrow.
  • The wailing of the wind through the cracks made the old house feel haunted.
• Used in literary or poetic contexts: To create a vivid emotional or auditory image.
  • The poet described the empty streets with their wailing silence.

Variants and Related Words

• Wail (verb/noun): To utter a prolonged, high-pitched cry of pain, grief, or anger; the cry itself.
  • The baby began to wail.
• Wailful (adjective): Full of wailing; mournful. (A less common, poetic synonym for the adjective 'wailing').
  • The wailful melody of the song moved the audience.

Synonyms

• Adjective: Lamenting, howling, weeping, mournful, plaintive.
• Noun: Lamentation, howling, weeping, keening, ululation (specifically for a ceremonial cry).

Related Phrases

• Wail and gnash one's teeth: To express extreme despair or anger (a biblical idiom).
  • There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth when the results are announced.
• Wail like a banshee: To wail very loudly and shrilly (an idiom referencing Irish folklore).
  • When she saw the mess, she started wailing like a banshee.

Adjective

1. vocally expressing grief or sorrow or resembling such expression
   • lamenting sinners
   • wailing mourners
   • the wailing wind
   • wailful bagpipes
   • tangle her desires with wailful sonnets- Shakespeare

Noun

1. loud cries made while weeping