wail

• enPR: wāl, IPA^(key): /weɪl/, [weɪɫ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪl
• Homophone: wale
• Homophone: whale (wine–whine merger)

c. 1300, Middle English weilen, waylen (“to sob, cry, wail”),^[1] from Old Norse væla (“to wail”),^[2] from væ, vei (“woe”),^[3] from Proto-Germanic *wai (whence also Old English wā (“woe”) (English woe)), from Proto-Indo-European *wáy.

The verb is first attested in the intransitive sense; the transitive sense developed in mid-14^th c.. The noun came from the verb.

wail (third-person singular simple present wails, present participle wailing, simple past and past participle wailed)

1. (intransitive) To cry out, as in sorrow or anguish.
2. (intransitive) To weep, lament persistently or bitterly.
3. (intransitive) To make a noise like mourning or crying.

   The wind wailed and the rain streamed down.

4. (transitive) To lament; to bewail; to grieve over.

   to wail one's death

   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act 3, scene 2]:

     My lord, wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes

5. (slang, music) To perform with great liveliness and force.
   • 1999, Lewis A. Erenberg, Swingin' the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture‎^[2], page 111:

     At Boston's Roseland, as "the Count's band was wailing," he grabbed Mamie, an avid dancer. The "band was screaming when she kicked off her shoes and got barefooted

   • 2012, Robert Lewis Barrett, A Portrait of the First Born As a Child‎^[3], page 377:

     The band was really wailing as we quickly made our dance moves in a most provocative manner.

   • 2013, Joan Silber, Fools‎^[4], →ISBN:

     We had a nondenominational wedding, with a bunch of great Sufi musicians really wailing, and my wildly enthusiastic mother in attendance.

• bewail
• wailer
• wail on
• wailingly

wail (plural wails)

1. A prolonged cry, usually high-pitched, especially as of grief or anguish. [from 15^th c.]

   She let out a loud, doleful wail.

2. Any similar sound as of lamentation; a howl.

   The wail of snow-dark winter winds.

   A bird's wail in the night.

3. A sound made by emergency vehicle sirens, contrasted with "yelp" which is higher-pitched and faster.

From Old Norse val (“choice”). Compare Icelandic velja (“to choose”). More at wale.

wail (third-person singular simple present wails, present participle wailing, simple past and past participle wailed)

1. (obsolete) Synonym of wale (“to choose; to select”)
   • c. 1500, Robert Henryson, The Testament of Cresseid:

     Wailed wine and metes

• “wail”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “wail”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “wail”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• wali, wila, wāli

wail

1. water

• James T. Collins, The Historical Relationships of the Languages of Central Maluku, Indonesia (1983), page 70

Blend of wala (“not”) +‎ ilhi (“known, recognized”)

• Hyphenation: wa‧il
• IPA^(key): /waˈʔil/ [wɐˈʔil̪]
• Rhymes: -il

wail (Badlit spelling ᜏᜁᜎ᜔)

1. an insignificant person
2. an unknown person or thing
3. an unknown celebrity or politician