mourn - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English mornen, mournen, from Old English murnan, from Proto-Germanic *murnaną. Cognate with French morne (“gloomy”).

mourn (third-person singular simple present mourns, present participle mourning, simple past and past participle mourned)

  1. (ambitransitive) To express sadness or sorrow for; to grieve over (especially a death).
    Synonyms: grieve, lament, weep; see also Thesaurus:be sad, Thesaurus:lament
    For two months, she mourned her father's passing.
  2. (ambitransitive) To engage in the social customs of mourning; to commemorate a death and/or honour the deceased socially.
    In that society, a spouse is mourned for one year, a parent for six months.
  3. (transitive) To utter in a sorrowful manner.
  4. (intransitive) To wear mourning.

express sadness for, grieve over — see also grieve

mourn (countable and uncountable, plural mourns)

  1. (now literary) Sorrow, grief.
    Synonyms: dejection; see also Thesaurus:sadness
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “vij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book II:
      Anone after ther cam balen / and whan he sawe kynge Arthur / he alyght of his hors / and cam to the kynge on foote / and salewed hym / by my hede saide Arthur ye be welcome / Sire ryght now cam rydynge this way a knyght makynge grete moorne / for what cause I can not telle
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  2. A ring fitted upon the head of a lance to prevent wounding an adversary in tilting.

mourn

  1. (West Riding) alternative form of sorwen