Mourn
//mɔɹn// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Sorrow, grief. countable, literary, uncountable
"Anone after ther cam balen / and whan he sawe kynge Arthur / he alyght of his hors / and cam to the kynge on foote / and salewed hym / by my hede saide Arthur ye be welcome / Sire ryght now cam rydynge this way a knyght makynge grete moorne / for what cause I can not telle"
- 2 A ring fitted upon the head of a lance to prevent wounding an adversary in tilting. countable, uncountable
Verb
- 1 To express sadness or sorrow for; to grieve over (especially a death). ambitransitive
"For two months, she mourned her father's passing."
- 2 feel sadness wordnet
- 3 To utter in a sorrowful manner. transitive
- 4 observe the customs of mourning after the death of a loved one wordnet
- 5 To wear mourning. intransitive
Example
More examples"Don't mourn over the loss of your loved one too long."
Etymology
From Middle English mornen, mournen, from Old English murnan, from Proto-Germanic *murnaną. Cognate with French morne (“gloomy”).
Related phrases
More for "mourn"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.