Question

weep

Accepted Answer

weep /wiːp/ verb (past tense and past participle wept /wept/)
1[intransitive and transitive] formal or literary to cry, especially because you feel very sad:
James broke down and wept.
weep for
She wept for the loss of her mother.
He wept bitterly (=cried a lot) when it was time for us to leave.
Register
In everyday English, people usually say cry rather than weep:
She was crying all the way through the movie.
2I could have wept spoken used to say that you felt very disappointed about something:
I could have wept thinking what I’d missed.
3[intransitive] if a wound weeps, liquid comes out of it
—weep noun [singular]
COLLOCATIONS
adverbs
openly Some of the mourners wept openly.
bitterly (=crying hard) I heard the sound of a woman weeping bitterly.
quietly/silently He was weeping quietly, allowing the tears to run down his cheeks.
nouns
weep tears She wept bitter tears of self-reproach.
weep buckets informal (=produce a lot of tears) I didn’t know if she would get well, and I wept buckets every night.
phrases
break down and weep (=start crying) As she watched his plane taxi away, she broke down and wept.
weep and wail (=cry and make loud sad noises – often used humorously) The baby wept and wailed all the way through the ceremony.
THESAURUS
cry to produce tears from your eyes: Don’t cry – everything will be all right! | Men aren’t supposed to cry.
cry your eyes out especially spoken to cry a lot and for a long time: I cried my eyes out when I watched ‘Titanic’.
be in tears to be crying: By the end of his story, we were all in tears.
be close to tears to be almost crying: You could see that she was close to tears.
weep literary to cry, especially for a long time: His mother put her head on the table and wept.
sob to cry, taking sudden loud breaths: I could hear someone sobbing in the next room.
wail /weɪl/ to cry very loudly in a high voice: The baby started wailing for its mother.
whimper /ˈwɪmpə $ -ər/ to cry quietly and weakly: She began rocking to and fro, whimpering softly.
hold/fight back the tears to make a big effort not to cry: She told her story, struggling to hold back the tears.
your eyes water if your eyes water, they have tears in them, for example because of smoke, wind, or when you are cutting onions: The onions were making my eyes water.

Wept Weep Tears Cry I Eyes Literary Broke