weep

Formsweeps, weeping, wept

Pluralweeps

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   To cry and shed tears, often with sobbing or difficulty speaking, as an expression of sadness or joy.

   He wept openly at his father's funeral.

   Visitors often weep when they finally see the memorial.

   Similarcry, sob

   Oppositelaugh

   Note

   The core sense goes back to Old English wēpan, from a root meaning "to call, cry, complain". The sound of grief came first and the tears later. The past and past participle are both wept, as in Longfellow's Evangeline (1847): "They wept together in silence." Weeped exists only as a nonstandard, poetic form, so wept is the safe choice in all ordinary writing.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A period or session of crying.

   She had a quiet weep in the bathroom before returning to the party.

   Sometimes a long weep is exactly what the heart needs.

   Similarcry

   Note

   As a noun, weep is most at home after have, usually with a cozy adjective attached: have a good weep. The construction treats crying as something one does for a while and comes out of, often feeling better. That is why it suits sympathetic, everyday talk rather than formal description.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To flow or ooze in drops, as moisture slowly escaping a surface.

   Resin wept slowly from the wound in the tree trunk.

   Damp basements often weep along the lower walls in winter.

   Similarooze, seep, drip, trickle

   Note

   In this sense the liquid becomes the subject. Blood, water or resin weeps from somewhere, slowly and drop by drop. Shakespeare turns it inward in Henry IV, Part 2: "The blood weeps from my heart." A weeping spring is one that discharges water slowly rather than gushing. Contrast the medical sense, where the surface weeps and the fluid is merely what it gives off.

4. 4
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To give off fluid or secretions, as a wound or sore does.

   The burn wept fluid for nearly a week before healing.

   Blisters that weep should be kept clean and covered.

   Similarooze, seep, discharge

   Note

   A clinical word for skin that has lost its seal. Inflamed, ulcerated or burned tissue weeps when it exudes serous fluid from its surface. The subject is the wound or sore itself, and the participle is the everyday form: a weeping wound, a weeping blister. It belongs to the wider family of senses about giving off moisture in small amounts, here narrowed to the body.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To hang or droop downward in pendent fashion, said of a plant or its branches.

   The old willow wept over the garden wall, its long shoots nearly touching the path.

   Certain cherry varieties weep gracefully, their flowering branches arching toward the soil.

   Similardroop, hang

   Note

   A metaphor that became a gardener's term: the branches hang "as if in sorrow". Poetry leans on the image, as in Edward William Cole's "The willows weep and the moonbeams sleep" (1893). In horticultural description the trait means pendulous branches that arch downward rather than growing upright. The participle names cultivars such as the weeping willow and the weeping cherry.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A single sob.

   A sudden weep broke from the child before she finally calmed down.

   Between weeps, she managed only a few broken words.

   Similarsob

   Note

   Here the noun counts single sobs, so it takes a plural freely: weeps. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) has a character hoping to "mingle our weeps over the wine-cup," and the plural sits naturally with mingle there. Keep it apart from a whole bout of crying. A weep in this sense is one catch of the breath, and many can fall within a single session.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   To lament or complain, expressing grief or discontent.

   Critics weep over the decline of craftsmanship in modern furniture.

   He wept at the injustice of it all in letter after letter.

   Similarlament, mourn, grieve, complain

   Oppositerejoice

   Note

   Here the old voice of the word survives. The root behind the tearful sense meant calling out and complaining, and in this sense the weeping is speech. The King James Bible of 1611 has "They weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh": a grievance aimed at someone, followed by words. Read older texts with this in mind, because weep unto someone may involve no tears at all.

8. 8
   noununcountable

   The red or reddish liquid that seeps from raw meat during storage, made mostly of water and protein.

   The packaging had collected a pool of weep beneath the chicken.

   Butchers drain the weep so the display case stays clean.

   Similarpurge

   Note

   The meat trade also calls this fluid purge. It is largely water with dissolved proteins such as myoglobin, which gives it the red color that shoppers often mistake for blood. The noun extends the verb's idea of liquid seeping out in small amounts, applied here to stored raw muscle.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A name for the lapwing, in particular the northern lapwing, Vanellus vanellus.

   Two weeps darted low across the plowed land, calling as they went.

   A lone weep nested among the tussocks near the river.

   Similarlapwing, peewit

   Note

   A separate word that only happens to share the spelling. The lapwing's name is imitative of its cry and has no link to tears. It forms an ordinary plural, weeps, so a sentence about weeps over a field concerns birds, not sobs. Context is the only way to tell the two apart.

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