weep Irish

verb

To cry insincerely or in an exaggerated manner.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

verbweep Irish (third-person singular simple present weeps Irish, present participle weeping Irish, simple past and past participle wept Irish)

present singular third person weeps Irish · participle present weeping Irish · participle past wept Irish · past wept Irish

  1. datedidiomaticTo cry insincerely or in an exaggerated manner.

    She never confesed to me this seed of my disorder, but "wept Irish" to others, how I had shed tears at birth before my first sound.

    2007, Mary Kelly Black, Lovely, Lonely Life: a Woman's Village Journal (Vol. 1)
    2 more examples

    I have here omitted the pathetic description of Billy Flannagan, touching the doleful parting of Cathleen with her people, "who wept Irish," hullaghlued, ahahoned, with all the moving circumstances of her farewell, and the seeing her home.

    1843, Nathanael Burton, History of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, near Dublin

    All this while, above in chambers looking out, we saw the long-bearded ministers of Geneva who laughed at us; but if we might have had our wills we would have made them to have wept Irish.

    1905, Bede Camm, Lives of the English Martyrs (Vol. 2)

Origin

From the extravagant displays of emotion associated with professional mourners at traditional Irish funerals.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

weep Irish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/weep%20Irish

MLA

“weep Irish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/weep%20Irish. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “weep Irish,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/weep%20Irish.

Source: weep Irish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.