See Also: mourning(medicine)
mourning(1)(dictionary)
mourning(2)(dictionary)
mourning(dictionary)
mourning(dictionary)
MOURNING(law)
mourning dove(encyclopedia)

mourning(2) (iou)



mourning noun1. ME.
[from MOURN verb + -ING1.]
The action of MOURN verb; the expression of grief for a person's death, esp. formally by the wearing of black clothes. Also, the period during which such clothes are worn. ME.
Tennyson Bury the Great Duke To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation. H. R. Landon Theatres..did not reopen until the official period of mourning ended.
An instance of this; a lament; a formal manifestation of grief for a person's death. Now rare. LME.
Bible (AV): Genesis 50:10 And he made a mourning for his father seuen dayes.
sing. & (now Scot. & north.) in pl. The (esp. black) clothes worn by a mourner. M17.
B. Guest Mourning was never worn. Death was not a subject for sorrow.
Phrases etc.: close mourning: see CLOSE adjective. deep mourning: see DEEP adjective. half-mourning: see HALF-. in mourning (a) grieving for a person's death, wearing (esp. black) clothes as a token of grief for a person's death; (b) slang (of an eye) blacked in fighting. second mourning: see SECOND adjective.
Attrib. & comb.: In the sense 'used or worn as a token of grief at a person's death', as mourning-brooch, mourning envelope, mourning jewellery, mourning-ring, etc. Special combs., as mourning-band (a) a strip of black crape etc. worn round the sleeve of a coat or a hat in token of bereavement; (b) slang a dirty edge to a fingernail; mourning cloak (a) a cloak worn by a mourner attending a funeral, usu. hired from the undertaker; (b) N. Amer. = CAMBERWELL BEAUTY; mourning coach (chiefly Hist.) (a) a black coach used by a person in mourning; (b) a (usu. black) closed carriage for conveying mourners at a funeral; mourning-paper notepaper with a black edge; mourning-piece US a pictorial representation of a tomb etc. intended as a memorial of the dead.