[f. WEEP v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb in the various senses; an instance of this.
1. The expression or manifestation of sorrow, pain, etc., by shedding tears.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 53. We muȝen michel eðere forðen wepinge þene song.
c. 1275. Lay., 5970. Mochel was þar wepinge.
c. 1369. Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 600. My sorowe is turned to playnyng And al my laughter to wepyng.
c. 1450. Mirour Saluacioun (Roxb.), 158. Flodes … of trewest sorow and wepyng.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtier, I. D ij. The great Alexander, hearing a certayne Philosophers oppinion to be that there were infinite worldes, fell in weping.
1573. Bedingfield, trans. Cardanus’ Comf., II. (1576), 16 b. The wepyng of ye heire is the weepynge of one that laugheth vnder a vizar.
1633. P. Fletcher, Ps. cxxxvii. 5. There we laid asteeping Our eyes in endlesse weeping For Sions fall.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. vi. 27. Sudden Dejection is the passion that causeth Weeping.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 95, ¶ 3. There is nothing, on these Occasions, so much in their Favour as immoderate Weeping.
1808. Scott, Marm., V. xxxii. Weeping and wailing loud arose.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. Fleet, I. i. So must this book begin with tears and weeping.
1896. H. G. Wells, Wheels of Chance, xix. Such weeping as he had seen before had been so much a matter of damp white faces, red noses, and hair coming out of curl.
b. With a and pl.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 4180. He hurde … Of a womman a deoluol cry & a pitos wepinge.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. pr. ii. (1868), 9. And wiþ þe lappe of hir garment … she driede myn eyen þat were ful of þe wawes of my wepynges.
c. 1420. Prymer (1895), 52 [Ps. cxvi. 8]. He haþ delyuerid … myn iȝen fro wepingis.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss. (1812), I. cccxcvi. 683. Euery day encreased the complayntes, wepynges, and cryes, made to Phylyp Dartuell.
1630. Milton, Passion, 51. Should I … Take up a weeping on the Mountains wilde.
1777. Thicknesse, Journ. France (1789), II. 51. You seem to hear the groans, weepings, and bewailings, from the dying.
1889. ‘J. S. Winter,’ Mrs. Bob, xx. And then what a weeping and a wailing there was!
2. The exudation or dripping of moisture generally; the flow or discharge of humours from the body, of gum, etc., from a tree; also the liquid so falling. Also fig. the produce (of the vine).
a. 1655. G. S., in Hartlib, Ref. Commw. Bees, 29. The Bees gather out of the weepings of Pine … Trees … abundance, both of Honey and Wax.
1699. W. Salmon, Pharm. Bateana (1713), 654. They are good against a Gonorrhæa, Whites, Gleets, Weepings, &c.
1730. Phil. Trans., XXXVI. 453. The mucous Particles and Steams arising from the Lungs, made a constant weeping of a thin slavery Liquor from the Mouth of the Pipe.
1744. Berkeley, Siris, § 28. The weepings of the lentiscus and cypress.
1817. Moore, Lalla Rookh, Veiled Prophet, 499. Vases, filled with Kishmee’s golden wine, And the red weepings of the Shiraz vine.
1877. A. W. Bennett, trans. Thomé’s Bot., 48. A process on which depends, for example, the ‘weeping’ of wounded grape-vines.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., x. 118. Any weeping of the rivets or caulking which results, is rectified.
3. The drooping or downward sweep (of hair).
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., viii. The dark soft weeping of her hair.
4. attrib. and Comb., as weeping-match, -scene; † weeping-dale = ‘vale of tears’ (VALE sb.1 2 b); weeping-hole, an opening through which moisture percolates; weeping-ripe a., ready to weep; † † weeping-room, opportunity for weeping; † weeping-spot, a spot or stain where a tear has fallen; weeping-time, -while, a time when one weeps or may weep.
c. 1400. Pety Job, 410, in 26 Pol. Poems, 134. In thys wofull *wepyng dale, I byde alwey.
1866. Chamb. Encycl., VIII. 217/2. Holes are left through the wall called *‘weeping-holes.’
1903. C. Bald, Indian Tea, vii. (1917), 97. It is imperatively necessary to have weeping holes, to carry off any water which may get behind the building.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., II. xi. 117. They often assemble by concert for a general *weeping-match.
1548. Elyot’s Dict., Lachrymabundus,… *weepyng rype.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 274. The King was weeping ripe for a good word. Ibid. (1593), 3 Hen. VI., I. iv. 172. Northumb. Had he been slaughter-man to all my Kinne, I should not for my Life but weepe with him, To see how inly Sorrow gripes his Soule.
a. 1614. Fletcher, Valentinian, I. iii. Then as Souldiers … they tell their wounds Even weeping ripe they were no more nor deeper.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., Pastorall to King, 7. Behold him weeping ripe.
1611. Chapman, Iliad, XXIV. 554. Ilion Shall finde thee *weeping roomes enow.
1809. A. Henry, Trav., 285. Had I not previously been witness to a *weeping-scene of this description, I should certainly have been apprehensive of some disastrous catastrophe.
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 2370. The *weping spottes in no wise Thei coude with noo craft gete a-way While thei had wesh it so many a day.
c. 1400. Love, Bonavent. Mirr. (1907), 191. And of thise three *wepynge tymes speketh holy writte.
1893. F. Thompson, Poems, 71.
| Smile, sweet baby, smile, | |
| For you will have *weeping-while. |
† b. Anat., as weeping corner (of the eye); weeping-flesh, the lachrymal caruncle; weeping vein, the ophthalmic vein. Obs.
To ope the weeping vein: to cause weeping. poet.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., II. IV. 257 b. In the weping corners of the eyes, there groweth a fistula [etc.].
1616. Chapman, Odyss., X. 519. I granted, went, and op’t the weeping veine In all my men.
1639. T. de Grey, Compl. Horsem., II. i. (1656), 65. The Veines which we do usuallie open, are; First the two Temple-Veines.… Secondlie, we open the two Eye or weeping-Veines. Ibid., II. xv. 494. First let him bloud in the neck and weeping veines.
1656. J. Smith, Pract. Physick, 120. A Haw in the Eye … is discerned from the weeping flesh, because the roots of the Nail ever inclineth most to whitenesse. Ibid., 345. An Ulcer of the weeping flesh, namely an Ægylops.
