- grieve
- grieve, mourn, sorrow mean to feel or express one's sorrow or grief. Grieve implies actual mental suffering, whether it is shown outwardly or not; the term often also connotes the concentration of one's mind on one's loss, trouble, or cause of distress{
after so many years, she still grieves for her dead child
}{he grieved, like an honest lad, to see his comrade left to face calamity alone— Meredith
}{my days are passed in work, lest I should grieve for her, and undo habits used to earn her praise— Lowell
}Mourn may or may not imply as much sincerity as grieve usually implies, but it does suggest a specific cause (as the death of a relative, friend, sovereign, or national hero) and carries a much stronger implication of the outward expression of grief (as in weeping, lamenting, or the wearing of black garments){we wept after her hearse, and yet we mourn— Shak.
}{fix a period of national mourning for a dead sovereign
}{grieve for an hour, perhaps, then mourn a year and bear about the mockery of woe to midnight dances, and the public show— Pope
}{mourn not for Adonais.—Thou young Dawn turn all thy dew to splendor, for from thee the spirit thou lamentest is not gone— Shelley
}Sorrow may imply grieving or mourning and be used in place of either term when sincere mental distress is implied; in distinctive use, however, it carries a stronger implication of regret or of deep sadness than either of its close synonyms{so send them [Adam and Eve from Eden] forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace— Milton
}{I desire no man to sorrow for me— Hay ward
}{heed not the tear that dims this aged eye!.... Though I sorrow, 'tis for myself, Aline, and not for thee— Gilbert
}Antonyms: rejoice
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
