weary
See also: Weary and wearþ
English
Etymology
From Middle English wery, weri, from Old English wēriġ (“weary”), from Proto-West Germanic *wōrīg, *wōrag (“weary”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian wuurich (“weary, tired”), West Frisian wurch (“tired”), Dutch dialectal wurrig (“exhausted”), Old Saxon wōrig (“weary”), Old High German wōrag, wuarag (“drunken”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˈwɪəɹi/
- (Scotland) IPA(key): /ˈwiːɹi/
Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪəɹi
- Hyphenation: wea‧ry
Adjective
weary (comparative wearier, superlative weariest)
- Having the strength exhausted by toil or exertion; tired; fatigued.
- A weary traveller knocked at the door.
- c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iv]:
- I care not for my spirits if my legs were not weary.
- 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Weariness
- [I] am weary, thinking of your task.
- 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0091:
- There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
- Having one's patience, relish, or contentment exhausted; tired; sick.
- soldiers weary of marching, or of confinement; I grew weary of studying and left the library.
- Expressive of fatigue.
- He gave me a weary smile.
- Causing weariness; tiresome.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 39:
- And now she was vppon the weary way,
- 1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, OCLC 1071922407:
- There passed a weary time.
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Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:fatigued
Derived terms
- battle-weary
- drink-weary
- war-weary
- wearily
- weariness
- wearisome
- world-weary
Translations
tired, fatigued
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having one's patience exhausted; sick
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expressive of fatigue
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tiresome
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb
weary (third-person singular simple present wearies, present participle wearying, simple past and past participle wearied)
- To make or to become weary.
- 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene iii]:
- So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers,
- 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- I would not cease / To wearie him with my assiduous cries.
- 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, Limited., published 1886, OCLC 1056292939:
- His name was Henderland; he spoke with the broad south-country tongue, which I was beginning to weary for the sound of; and besides common countryship, we soon found we had a more particular bond of interest.
- 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934:
- Yet there was no time to be lost if I was ever to get out alive, and so I groped with my hands against the side of the grave until I made out the bottom edge of the slab, and then fell to grubbing beneath it with my fingers. But the earth, which the day before had looked light and loamy to the eye, was stiff and hard enough when one came to tackle it with naked hands, and in an hour's time I had done little more than further weary myself and bruise my fingers.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:tire
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Derived terms
- unwearied
- unwearying
- weariedly
Translations
to make weary
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to become weary
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See also
- wary
Anagrams
- Erway, Wreay