Meanings
comparative more wearish · superlative most wearish
- dialectalobsoleteSickly, wizened, feeble.
Who was to weet a wretched wearish elfe, / With hollow eyes and rawbone cheekes forspent […].
1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC1 more example
Democritus, as he is described by Hippocrates and Laertius, was a little wearish old man, very melancholy by nature, averse from company in his latter days, and much given to solitariness[…].
1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York: New York Review Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 16
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Middle Englishwarssh
- Englishwearish
From Middle English warssh, werisch, werische, werish, werissh, werssh, werysshe, of unknown origin; compare Modern English dialectal wairsh and Early Modern English wersh; perhaps related to Middle English wery (modern weary).
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
wearish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wearish
“wearish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wearish. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wearish,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wearish.
Source: wearish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.