weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Biblical, Matthew 13:42,[1] although the exact wording is not present in any translation.[2]
Noun[edit]
weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth (uncountable)
- consternation, worry
- 1883, Mark Twain, chapter 15, in Life on the Mississippi:
- There was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in the camp of the outsiders now.
- 1910, The Old Man, Melbourne: Punch, page 6:
- There was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in South Melbourne last Saturday night. For weeks past there had been only one topic of conversation'—football.
- 2005, Corey Kilgannon, “You Probably Say That to All Naughty Columnists”, in New York Times:
- And there was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth among the crowd of reporters invited to the Stellan Holm Gallery, then promptly expelled from it, on Sunday night.
Translations[edit]
consternation, worry
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References[edit]
- ^ The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1611, →OCLC, Matthew 13:42.: “And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wayling and gnashing of teeth.”
- ^ David Crystal (2010) Begat: The King James Bible and the English Language, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 152: “The modern expression is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, but that exact combination is nowhere to be found in the Bible. […] Somehow, a synthesis of all three verbs took place, resulting in the full form of the modern expression.”