[See WEEPING ppl. a. 6. Cf. F. saule pleureur, G. trauer-, thränenweide.] A species of willow, Salix babylonica, a large tree, native of Eastern Asia, having long and slender pendulous branches, cultivated in Europe as an ornamental tree and regarded as symbolical of mourning.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., Salix; orientalis,… The Weeping Willow.
1755. Young, Centaur, iii. Wks. 1757, IV. 171. Their wretched joys flourish, like dismal weeping willows watered by a ditch.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xvii. Eddying … The weeping willow twig to lave.
1898. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, xxi. 224. A weeping-willow, trimly trained in the accurate Dutch fashion.
