1871-2. Eliot, Middlemarch, lxxx. If anybody was to marry me, flattering himself as I should wear those hijeous weepers two years for him, he'd be deceived by his own vanity, that's all.
To weep Irish, verb. phr. (old).—To lament prodigally, to wail: spec. without sincerity, to shed crocodile's tears.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah Sight, ii. xii. 15. Surely the Egyptians did not weep-Irish with faigned and mercenary tears.
1710. Centlivre, Bickerstaff's Burying. What the devil can be the matter? why all this noise? here's none but friends; I don't apprehend that anybody can overhear you; this is something like the Irish cry.
Weeping-cross. To return
by Weeping-cross, verb. phr.
(old).—1. To fail, suffer defeat,
meet with repulse. Hence (2)
to repent, to lament: cf. Lothbury.
[Nares: Of the three
places now retaining the name,
one is between Oxford and
Banbury; another very near
Stafford, where the road turns
off to Walsall; the third near
Shrewsbury: these crosses being,
doubtless, places where penitents
particularly offered their devotions.]
1580. Lyly, Euphues and his England, D. ii. b. But the time will come when, comming home by Weeping Crosse, thou shalt confesse that it is better to be at home.
1605. Dekker, Eastward Hoe [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), iv. 266]. Since they have all found the way back again by Weeping Cross. But I'll not see them.
1605. Heywood, If You Know not Me [Works (1874), i. 267]. Had you before the law foreseen the losse, You had not now come home by weeping crosse.
1612. Withers, Prince Henrie's Obseq. For here I mourne for your, our publike losse, And doe my pennance at the weeping crosse.
1614. Fletcher, Night Walker, i. 1. One is a kind of weeping cross, Jack, A gentle purgatory.
1620. Young Gallant's Whirligig. For if nee straggle from his limits farre (Except the guidance of some happy starre Doe rectifie his steps, restore his losse), He may perhaps come home by weeping crosse.
1655. Fanshawe, Lusiad, x. 64. The pagan king of Calicut take short, That would have past him; with no little loss Sending him home again by Weeping Cross.
1660. Howell, Proverbs, P. 3. b. He that goes out with often losse, At last comes home by weeping crosse.
Wegotism, subs. (literary).—The
incessant use of 'we' in journalism:
cf. Weism.
1881. Jennings, Curiosities of Criticism, 156. Individual merit would no longer be merged, as it is now, in what is called the wegotism of the press.
Weight, subs. (old).—1. The end of
one's tether: 'it is often customary
with the traps (q.v.) to wink
at depredations of a petty nature,
and for which no reward would
attach, and to let a thief go unmolested
till he commits a capital
crime; they then grab him and
share a reward of 40l., or upwards:
therefore these gentry will say,
Let him alone . . . till he weighs
his weight' (Grose).
2. (old).—Lust, wantonness, heat (q.v.).
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 2. I'm certain ne'er a parson's daughter (Though you went round the world to get her) Would carry weight, for inches, better.
Weird Sisters (The), subs. phr.
(literary).—The Fates: also
Three Weird Sisters.
1512-3. Douglas, Ænid, iii. The remanant hereof, quhat euer be it, The weird sisteris defendis that suld be wit.
