[f. WEEP v. + -ING2.]
1. That weeps. Said of persons, also of the eyes.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Josh. vi. 21. Hi ofsloʓon … ða wepende cild.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 6938. Þe quene was þo vorþ ilad mid moni a wepinde eye Of bissopes & of heyemen.
c. 1425. Cursor M., 14023 (Trin.). Were þis mon prophete so good Þis wepynge wommon [Earlier texts Þis womman wepand] on him wood He auȝte to witen what she were.
1450–1530. Myrr. Our Lady, II. 233. The gretnes of godhed was mekely hyd in the lytel body of a weping chylde.
1554. Bury Wills (Camden), 145. I bequeath to my nece Mary Gifford … my ringe with the wepinge eie.
1575. Gascoigne, Flowers, Mask Mountacute, 164. That so he might be shewed … Unto us all, whose weeping eyes dyd much abhorre the sight.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. ii. 53. I feare hee will proue the weeping Phylosopher when he growes old, being so full of vnmannerly sadnesse in his youth.
1617. R. White, Cupid’s Banishm., in Nichols, Progr. Jas. I. (1828), III. 293. The Weeping Drunkard next.
1667. Dryden, Ind. Emp., IV. iv. Cyd. More cruel than the Tyger o’re his spoil; And falser than the Weeping Crocodile. Ibid. (1697), Æneis, V. 797. Turning to the Sea their weeping Eyes.
1706. Rowe, Ulysses, IV. i. Sadly attentive to the weeping Queen.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 252, ¶ 3. There is something so moving in the very Image of weeping Beauty.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1768), IV. 146. A weeping eye indicates a gentle heart.
1754. Gray, Progr. Poesy, 44. Disease, and Sorrow’s weeping train.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxxv. Edith looked down upon the weeping girl, and once kissed her.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxii. He had taken leave of his weeping sweetheart.
1884. J. Parker, Apost. Life, III. 124. When men speak of Jeremiah, they think of him as the weeping prophet.
† b. absol. Persons weeping. Obs.
c. 1482. Monk of Evesham (Arb.), 24. He … fulbitterly beganne to wepe and with rennyng terys sorofully sobbyd as wepyng doth [L. ut plorantes solent].
c. Weeping monkey: a name applied to the sapajous. Cf. WEEPER 2.
1834. McMurtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 48. Their name of Weeping Monkeys is derived from their plaintive voice.
2. Of the voice, the countenance: Tearful, lachrymose. Of utterances: Accompanied with weeping, tearful. Or emotion: Expressed by weeping.
c. 900. Bæda’s Hist., I. xii. Ða … onsendon hi ærendwrecan to Rome mid ʓewritum & wepindre bene [L. lacrimosis precibus].
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Thorpe), vi. 7. Forðam þe Drihten hyrde mine wependan stefne [Vulg. vocem fletus mei].
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17947. Wiþ wepynge preyere.
1382. Wyclif, Dan. vi. 20. With a wepynge voice [Vulg. voce lacrimabili].
c. 1400. 26 Pol. Poems, xi. 46. Repentaunce makeþ wepyng mon [= moan].
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtier, II. (1900), 161. For undoubtedlye it is not meete for a Gentlemanne to make weepinge and laughing faces, [etc.].
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. i. 34. Her words yclad with wisedomes Maiesty, Makes me from Wondring, fall to Weeping ioyes, Such is the Fulnesse of my hearts content.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 457. Leauing me with a weeping good-night.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), II. 154. Having taken a weeping leave of all the family. Ibid., IV. 17. We behold him with weeping gratitude.
1827. Pollok, Course T., IX. 1156. Bards … bewailed them much, With doleful instruments of weeping song.
3. † a. Weeping tears, abundant weeping. Rarely in sing. Obs.
a. 1470. Harding, Chron., cxl. x. He shroue hym then vnto abbots three With great sobbyng and hye contricion, And wepyng teares.
1471. Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 644. The troians toke the body of parys with wepyng teres and bare hit vnto the cyte.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XIII. iv. 40. Wyth sik plente of bittir wepand teris.
1560. trans. J. Fisher’s Godly Treat. Benef. Prayer, H 1. With many sighes and aboundaunce of wepyng teares.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 1375. Many a dry drop seem’d a weeping teare, Shed for the slaughtred husband by the wife.
1652. C. B. Stapylton, Herodian, i. 7. This Message was receiv’d with weeping teares.
a. 1700. Tri. Patience, in Halliw., Yorks. Anthol. (1851), 359. With weeping tears she did reply, My heart is overwhelm’d with grief.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Weeping-tears, A very odd pleonasm, but in very common use for excessive sorrow.
b. Falling or issuing in drops like tears. Now rare or Obs.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 79. The Springs on, or near the tops of hills, if weak and weeping, may proceed from rains.
1704. Pope, Windsor For., 30. Let India boast her plants, nor envy we The weeping amber or the balmy tree.
1735. J. Price, Stone-Br. Thames, 6. To empty out the weeping Water and Springs.
1766. Complete Farmer, s.v. Lucern, Except it be obstructed by a stratum of rock, or chilled at root by weeping springs.
1827. Pollok, Course T., V. 98. Though poets … talked and sang Of brooks, and crystal founts, and weeping dews.
1831. Wordsw., Sonnet Depart. Sir W. Scott, 1. A trouble, not of clouds, or weeping rain … Engendered.
4. Exuding moisture: a. Of soil: Oozing, swampy.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. 17 b. Yf it be wette or weepyng ground, or subiect vnto other inconueniences.
1597. Shaks., Lover’s Compl., 39. A riuer … Vpon whose weeping margent she was set.
1625. Markham, Inrichment Weald Kent, 9. The Haisell ground being dry, and not subiect to Winter-springs, or teares of water (for which some call such, A whining or weeping ground) is to be handled thus. Ibid., 19. A sandy and grauelly ground that is wet and weeping.
1644. G. Plattes, in Hartlib’s Legacy (1655), 216. The last Experiment, shewing how weeping land may be drained where there is no level.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 2 June 1676. The soil a cold weeping clay, not answering the expence.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 33. Ray-Grass … is reckoned to grow on any Land, but chiefly in Cold sour Clays, and weeping Grounds.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Nov., 409. Upon poor, weak, weeping clays, where … the dung is locked up,… the application of lime is equally salutary.
1813. Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 40. The shaley rock, covered with a grey loam of a moderate staple, and producing a very wet and weeping surface.
1816. Trial Berkeley Poachers, 30. There I could see, for there was a wet or weeping place, the tracks of sixteen men.
b. Path. Of the eyes: Running, watering. Also of diseased tissues or structures from which moisture exudes. Weeping eczema, a variety of eczema characterized by abundant exudation.
1580. Blundevil, Curing Horses Dis., xxviii. 15. Of weeping or watering eies.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXV. 140. It appeared that at the time of sale the horse had weeping eyes.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 503. A general raw, red, weeping surface is produced. Ibid., 608. Squamous or weeping eczema. Ibid., 749. The epidermis is exfoliated … leaving the skin underneath red and tender but never moist or weeping as in eczema.
c. In general use.
1550. Bale, Acts Engl. Votaries, II. O vj. I coulde here shewe ye wonders of wepinge Roodes, and sweating ladies.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 647. The yawning Earth disclos’d th’ Abyss of Hell: The weeping Statues did the Wars foretel.
1710. Hilman, Tusser Rediv., April (1744). 45. His Bark clean without fungi or Toad-stools, no weeping Holes or decayed Boughs upon him.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 283. Oozing springs,… weeping rocks.
1903. E. Childers, Riddle of Sands, ix. 92. I returned, with a shock, to the present, to the weeping walls, the discoloured deal table, the ghastly breakfast litter—all the visible symbols of the life I had pledged myself to.
d. † Weeping Bower, the name given in Barbados to a tree that exudes a gum of some kind. Weeping Gum, the name of two species of Eucalyptus, E. pauciflora and E. viminalis (Morris, Austral Engl., s.v. Gum).
1696. Plukenet, Almagestum, Wks. 1769, II. 43. Arbor … Scenam topiariam efformans Lachrymifera, fortè Stacteflua, s. Myrrham liquidam fundens…. Nostratibus Colonis Weeping Bower nuncupata.
5. Of climate, weather, skies, etc.: Dripping, rainy.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. iii. 61. A naked subiect to the Weeping Clouds.
a. 1668. Denham, To Sir John Mennis, 1. All on a weeping Monday,… Little Admiral John To Bologne is gone.
1771. Smollett, Humphry Cl., 6 Sept. This country would be a perfect paradise, if it was not, like Wales, cursed with a weeping climate.
1819. Keats, Otho, V. v. 39. Gauzes of silver mist, Loop’d up with cords of twisted wreathed light, And tassell’d round with weeping meteors!
1821. Scott, Pirate, iv. The inconveniences arising from a cold soil and a weeping climate.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 981. In a weeping season, the hay on one property was effectually saved by the use of the tedding-machine.
1848. Mrs. A. Marsh, Father Darcy, II. xiv. 239. It was a weeping day—a cold, cloudy day, at the very beginning of September.
1884. Annie S. Swan, Carlowrie, ii. 30. The rain still falling desolately from weeping skies.
1896. Kipling, Seven Seas, Three Sealers. The weeping fog rolled fold on fold the wrath of man to cloak.
transf. 1615. Chapman, Odyss., XIX. 646. Ioy and griefe together Her brest inuaded: and of weeping weather Her eyes stood full.
6. Used to designate trees (less frequently other plants) the branches of which arch over and hang down drooping. Chiefly in the distinctive names of particular species or varieties. [So F. pleureur in saule pleureur weeping willow, frêne pleureur weeping ash.]
Weeping oak, the Californian white oak, Quercus lobata; also, a cultivated variety of the English oak, Quercus Robur. The weeping ash, beech, birch, elm, etc., are varieties of certain species of those trees; in botanical works they are designated by the addition of pendula after the specific name. See also WEEPING WILLOW.
1606. N. B[axter], Sydney’s Ourania, F 4 b. The weeping Elme, the Beech, the Byrch.
1791. W. Gilpin, Forest Scenery, I. 41. There is another variety also of this tree, called the weeping elm. Ibid., 66. Of the white birch there is a … variety, sometimes called the lady-birch, or the weeping-birch.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 61. The weeping variety of the Common Ash.
1838. Loudon, Arboretum, II. 1214. Fraxinus pendula.… The pendulous, or weeping Ash. Ibid., III. 1691. Betula pendula … the weeping Birch. Ibid., 1732. Quercus pendula … the Weeping Oak. Ibid., 1952. Fagus pendula … the weeping Beech.
1849. Florist, 273. Among weeping trees, we found the weeping purple Beech, the weeping Holly, the new weeping Elm,… the weeping Yew, the weeping Oak, weeping silver Fir, and weeping red Cedar.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 343. The … rhizome of Goniophlebium dissimile … allows to droop on every side its long, weeping fronds.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 202. Weeping and drooping trees.
1882. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, IX. No. iii. 436. At the upper end stands … a purple beech, and a weeping elm, there being weeping ashes elsewhere.
1895. Cornish, Wild Eng., 92. On the shaded bank, a line of weeping-birches dips into the pool.
1898. Morris, Austral Engl., 171. Rice Grass, Meadow, Microtæna stipoides. Called also Weeping Grass. Ibid., 506. Weeping-Myall, an Australian tree, Acacia pendula. Cunn.
