forweep

forweep

English

Etymology

From Middle English forwepen, equivalent to for- +‎ weep.

Verb

forweep (third-person singular simple present forweeps, present participle foweeping, simple past and past participle forwept)

1. (intransitive, chiefly obsolete) To exhaust (oneself) with weeping; weep excessively; (of a vine) to bleed excessively.
   • 1870, Geoffrey Chaucer, David Laing Purves, Edmund Spenser, The Canterbury tales and Faerie queene:

     Till at the last an aged knight, / Which seem'd a man in greate thought, / Like as he set all thing at nought, / With visage and eyes all forwept, / And pale, as a man long unslept, […]

   • 1966, Helen Rambow, Chattermarks:

     […] Schooled the quadrilling Capriole's daring leaps Of delight so exquisite The beholder forweeps No sculpture captures Perfection's display So fluid the flesh is Confection in clay Haunting the memory Of horses on plain Cherished forever […]