The expression “coffee break” was first attested in 1952 in glossy magazine advertisements by the Pan-American Coffee Bureau.
WAILFUL
lamenting, wailing, wailful
(adjective) vocally expressing grief or sorrow or resembling such expression; “lamenting sinners”; “wailing mourners”; “the wailing wind”; “wailful bagpipes”; “tangle her desires with wailful sonnets”- Shakespeare
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Adjective
wailful (comparative more wailful, superlative most wailful)
(chiefly poetic) Sorrowful; mournful.
You must lay Lime, to tangle her desires / By walefull Sonnets, whose composed Rimes / Should be full fraught with seruiceable vowes.
Source: Wiktionary
Wail"ful, a.
Definition: Sorrowful; mournful. " Like wailful widows." Spenser. "Wailful sonnets." Shak.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
31 March 2025
IMPROVISED
(adjective) done or made using whatever is available; “crossed the river on improvised bridges”; “the survivors used jury-rigged fishing gear”; “the rock served as a makeshift hammer”
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