lament

From French lamenter, from Latin lāmentor (“I wail, weep”), from lāmenta (“wailings, laments, moanings”); with formative -mentum, from the root *la-, probably ultimately imitative. Also see latrare.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ləˈmɛnt/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt

lament (plural laments)

1. An expression of grief, suffering, or sadness.
2. A song expressing grief.

• lamentful (rare)

lament (third-person singular simple present laments, present participle lamenting, simple past and past participle lamented)

1. (intransitive) To express grief; to weep or wail; to mourn.
   • Bible, John xvi. 20

     Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice.

2. (transitive) To feel great sorrow or regret; to bewail.
   • 2014, Paul Doyle, "Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter", The Guardian, 18 October 2014:

     By the end, Sunderland were lucky to lose by the same scoreline Northampton Town suffered against Southampton, in 1921. The Sunderland manager, Gus Poyet, lamented that it was “the most embarrassed I’ve ever been on a football pitch, without a doubt”.

   • Dryden

     One laughed at follies, one lamented crimes.

• bewail

• lament in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• lament in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• Mantle, manlet, mantel, mantle, mental

lament

1. third-person plural present indicative of lamer
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of lamer

• mêlant, mental