Word.ws English Dictionary

bewailing

bewailing is the present participle and gerund of bewail.

Meaning of bewail

Verb

bewail (third-person singular simple present bewails, present participle bewailing, simple past and past participle bewailed)

  1. To wail over; to feel or express deep sorrow for.
    • […] Though in this city he
      Hath widow’d and unchilded many a one,
      Which to this hour bewail the injury,
      Yet he shall have a noble memory.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

Noun

bewailing (plural bewailings)

  1. The act of one who bewails something.
    • We might have been!—these are but common words,
      And yet they make the sum of life's bewailing;
      They are the echo of those finer chords,
      Whose music life deplores when unavailing,
      We might have been!1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Chapter XXI. Lady Marchmont’s Journal.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 158
    • No suggestions, no words, no bewailings could improve it. Still it was very human to make suggestions, and utter words, and make piteous bewailings over and over again.1867, Annie Thomas, Called to Account

Forms of bewailing

pluralbewailings

Questions about bewailing

What does bewailing mean?
Bewailing means the act of one who bewails something.
What is bewailing the present participle and gerund of?
Bewailing is the present participle and gerund of bewail.
What part of speech is bewailing?
Bewailing is a noun.
What is the plural of bewailing?
The plural of bewailing is bewailings.

Words near bewailing in the dictionary

  1. bewailed
  2. bewailer
  3. bewailers
  4. bewailest
  5. bewaileth
  6. bewailing
  7. bewailingly
  8. bewailings
  9. bewailment
  10. bewailments
  11. bewails

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bewailing (page history and authors); bewail (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “bewailing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bewailing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.