MOURN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mourn mean? 

• MOURN (verb)
  The verb MOURN has 2 senses:

1. feel sadness

2. observe the customs of mourning after the death of a loved one

  Familiarity information: MOURN used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MOURN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they mourn    ... he / she / it mourns   
Past simple: mourned   
Past participle: mourned   
-ing form: mourning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Feel sadness

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Context example:

She is mourning her dead child

Hypernyms (to "mourn" is one way to...):

grieve; sorrow (feel grief)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

Sam cannot mourn Sue

Derivation:

mourner (a person who is feeling grief (as grieving over someone who has died))

mourning (state of sorrow over the death or departure of a loved one)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Observe the customs of mourning after the death of a loved one

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "mourn" is one way to...):

celebrate; keep; observe (behave as expected during of holidays or rites)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue mourn

Derivation:

mourner (a person who is feeling grief (as grieving over someone who has died))

 Context examples 

This reaction may include behavioral and physical problems, extreme mourning, and being unable to separate emotionally from the person who died.

(Grief therapy, NCI Dictionary)

It appeared to me sacrilege so soon to leave the repose, akin to death, of the house of mourning and to rush into the thick of life.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

After that he mourned gently when the gods were around.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“Mrs. David Copperfield, I think,” said Miss Betsey; the emphasis referring, perhaps, to my mother's mourning weeds, and her condition.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

By this time to-morrow you will, please God, have passed them, and have drunk of the sweet waters; so do not mourn overmuch.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The Tin Woodman came to her and said: Truly I should be ungrateful if I failed to mourn for the man who gave me my lovely heart.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Long as we have been parted, hot tears as I have wept over our separation, I never thought that while I was mourning her, she was loving another!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

'Ye fallen avenues, once more I mourn your fate unmerited.'

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I have never heard that he had shown so much love for you that you should mourn him so.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had been engaged to Captain Harville's sister, and was now mourning her loss.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)