weary

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See also: Weary and wearþ

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

Adjective[edit]

weary (comparative wearier, superlative weariest)

  1. Having the strength exhausted by toil or exertion; tired; fatigued.
    A weary traveller knocked at the door.
  2. 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.
  3. Expressive of fatigue.
    He gave me a weary smile.
  4. Causing weariness; 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.

Verb[edit]

weary (third-person singular simple present wearies, present participle wearying, simple past and past participle wearied)

  1. To make or to become weary.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:tire
    • 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, [Act IV, scene iii]:
      So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers,
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. [], London: [] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker []; [a]nd by Robert Boulter []; [a]nd Matthias Walker, [], →OCLC:
      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, published 1886, →OCLC:
      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[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London: Edward Arnold, →OCLC:
      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.

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