Meanings
present singular third person forweeps · participle present forweeping · participle past forwept · past forwept
- intransitiveobsoleteTo exhaust (oneself) with weeping; weep excessively; (of a vine) to bleed excessively.
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, […]
1870, Geoffrey Chaucer, David Laing Purves, Edmund Spenser, The Canterbury tales and Faerie queene1 more example
[…] 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 […]
1966, Helen Rambow, Chattermarks
Origin
- Middle Englishforwepen
- Englishforweep
From Middle English forwepen, equivalent to for- + weep.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
forweep. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forweep
“forweep.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forweep. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “forweep,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forweep.
Source: forweep on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.