Bemoan

//bɪˈməʊn// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To moan or complain about (something). transitive

    "He bemoaned the drought but went on watering his lawn."

  2. 2
    regret strongly wordnet
  3. 3
    To be dismayed or worried about (someone), particularly because of their situation or what has happened to them. reflexive, transitive

    "Son. Was ever son so rued a father’s death? Father. Was ever father so bemoan’d his son?"

Synonyms

All synonyms
bewaillamentbewaildeploredeploremourn

Example

More examples

"When I had to learn English in school, at times I would bemoan all the irregularities and strange rules."

Etymology

From Middle English bemenen, bimenen, from Old English bemǣnan (“to bemoan, bewail, lament”); equivalent to be- (“about, concerning”) + moan. Alteration of vowel from Middle to Modern English due to analogy with moan.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.