wail

1 of 2

verb

wailed; wailing; wails

intransitive verb

1
: to express sorrow audibly : lament
2
: to make a sound suggestive of a mournful cry
3
: to express dissatisfaction plaintively : complain

transitive verb

1
: to say or express plaintively
wailed that her cake was ruined
2
archaic : bewail
wailer noun

wail

2 of 2

noun

1
a
: a usually prolonged cry or sound expressing grief or pain
b
: a sound suggestive of wailing
the wail of an air-raid siren
c
: a querulous expression of grievance : complaint
2
: the act or practice of wailing : loud lamentation

Examples of wail in a Sentence

Verb The child started wailing after she stumbled and fell. A saxophone wailed in the background. “No! I don't want to go!” he wailed. She wailed that the vacation was ruined. Noun the wail of a siren a prolonged wail arose from every corner of the city as the victims of the earthquake were unearthed from the rubble See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
One man, standing over the bodies of two young boys, wailed in grief. Yousur Al-Hlou, New York Times, 18 Oct. 2023 On Saturday, as air raid sirens wailed nonstop, Israel scrambled to open bomb shelters, call up thousands of reservists and redirect dozens of units to the southern border. Miriam Berger, Washington Post, 7 Oct. 2023 As a member of One Direction and solo artist, Louis Tomlinson has seen more tears and wailing than a veteran midwife. Lars Brandle, Billboard, 26 Oct. 2023 About 3,000 revelers were still awake around 6:30 a.m. Saturday when sirens wailed, cutting off the psy-trance music pulsing in a desert field near the Gaza border. Alyssa Lukpat, WSJ, 10 Oct. 2023 While this might not seem like a big deal, anyone who’s experienced a hungry infant screaming in their ear knows that every second counts from the first hunger wails to filling those little bellies. Dorian Smith-Garcia, Parents, 18 Sep. 2023 Fire trucks, ambulances and police cars were streaming into the parking lot, sirens wailing. Maggie Prosser, Dallas News, 14 Sep. 2023 The occasional sound of somebody wailing punctuates the near silence. Stuart Ramsay, NBC News, 11 Sep. 2023 His latest tech house weapon is loaded with simply cool sounds, from the skittering synth to the growling bassline to a hectic build and a drop that’s equal parts wailing vocal and car alarm. Katie Bain, Billboard, 6 Oct. 2023
Noun
With every death, the women of the house, in white gloves and veils, ran between the battlefield and the tents emitting wails of sorrow into a loudspeaker. Aatish Taseer, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2023 As everyone watched the show, lightning bolts seemed to come down when the music would swell to a climax, underscoring Adrienne Lenker’s impassioned wails and giving the whole night a mystical feeling. Julia Carmel, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2023 The piercing wail of ambulances, their red and blue lights flashing, announced the arrival of Samira Ayoub and her three granddaughters: fourteen-year-old Rimas, twelve-year-old Talin, and the youngest, Layan, just ten years old. Rania Abouzeid, The New Yorker, 10 Nov. 2023 But where road and city meet, romance ends — in twisted metal, the wail of emergency vehicles and, far too often, blood and fire and death. Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 26 Oct. 2023 The noise is hard to talk over at full wail, but the sounds are comfortable at cruising speeds. Frank Markus, Car and Driver, 1 Aug. 2023 The wails of an agonized mother cut through the room. Emily Opilo, Baltimore Sun, 13 Sep. 2023 The two move in together to care for the baby, whose haunting wails fill the tiny and decrepit apartment. Claudia Guthrie, ELLE, 29 Aug. 2023 His voice, a blend of sad wail and smooth croon, also endures as a distinctive, undiminished sound. Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY, 26 June 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wail.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English weilen, waylen, perhaps modification (influenced by Middle English weilawei wellaway) of Old Norse væla, vāla to wail; akin to Old Norse vei woe — more at woe

First Known Use

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Time Traveler
The first known use of wail was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near wail

Cite this Entry

“Wail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wail. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.

Kids Definition

wail

1 of 2 verb
1
: to express sorrow by mournful cries : lament
2
: to make a sound like a mournful cry
3
: to express dissatisfaction : complain
wailer noun

wail

2 of 2 noun
1
: a long cry or sound of grief or pain
2
: a sound like a wail
the wail of a siren

More from Merriam-Webster on wail

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