Meanings
plural plaints
- A complaint.
she seemed to repeat, though with perceptible resignation, her plaint of a moment before. ‘Your father, darling, is a very odd person indeed.’
1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew - archaicpoeticA lament or woeful cry.
His shriek was as feeble as the plaint of a grass-stalk in a storm.
1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter V, in Capricornia, page 752 more examples
In the first paroxysm of his grief, Ingolfr exclaimed, (what sorrowing heart has not echoed his plaint?) that he could never more taste of joy.
1827, Maria Elizabeth Budden, Nina, An Icelandic Tale, page 11I heard voices calling to me, just discernible above the engine noise; I stopped, and switched off. There were no voices, nothing, but far, far away the plaint of an unmilked cow.
1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 198 - UKarchaiclawAn accusation.
Once the plaint had been made there was nothing that could be done to revoke it.
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinplango“to beat one's breast, to lament”
- Latinplanctus“a beating of the breast in lamentation, beating, lamentation”
- Medieval Latinplancta“plaint”
- Old Frenchpleinte“lamentation”
- Anglo-Normanplainte“lamentation”
- Middle Englishplainte
- Englishplaint
From Middle English plainte, borrowed from Anglo-Norman plainte (“lamentation”), plaint (“lament”), and Old French pleinte (“lamentation”), pleint (“lament”) (modern French plainte), from Medieval Latin plancta (“plaint”), from Latin planctus (“a beating of the breast in lamentation, beating, lamentation”), from Latin plango (“to beat one's breast, to lament”); see plain.
More words from Middle English, Anglo-Norman, Old French
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with plaint
Anagrams
Cite this entry
plaint. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/plaint
“plaint.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/plaint. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “plaint,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/plaint.
Source: plaint on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.