Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Physically or mentally tired.
  • adjective Expressive of or prompted by tiredness.
  • adjective Having one's interest, forbearance, or indulgence worn out.
  • adjective Causing fatigue; tiresome.
  • transitive & intransitive verb To make or become weary. synonym: tire.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Tired; exhausted by toil or exertion; having the endurance or patience worn out by continuous striving.
  • Impatient of or discontented with the continuance of something painful, exacting, irksome, or distasteful, and willing to be done with it; having ceased to feel pleasure (in something).
  • Causing fatigue; tiresome; irksome: as, a weary journey; a weary life.
  • Feeble; sickly; puny.
  • Synonyms Disgusted, wearisome. See weary, verb
  • noun A curse: used now only in the phrases Weary fa' you! Weary on you! and the like.
  • To make weary; reduce or exhaust the physical strength or endurance of; fatigue; tire: as, to weary one's self with striving.
  • To exhaust the endurance, patience, or resistance of, as by persistence or importunity.
  • To pass wearily.
  • Synonyms Fatigue, Jade, etc. See tire.
  • To become weary, tired, or fatigued.
  • To become impatient or surfeited, as with the continuance of something that is monotonous, irksome, or distasteful.
  • To long; languish: with for before the object.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To reduce or exhaust the physical strength or endurance of; to tire; to fatigue.
  • transitive verb To make weary of anything; to exhaust the patience of, as by continuance.
  • transitive verb To harass by anything irksome.
  • transitive verb to subdue or exhaust by fatigue.
  • intransitive verb To grow tired; to become exhausted or impatient.
  • adjective Having the strength exhausted by toil or exertion; worn out in respect to strength, endurance, etc.; tired; fatigued.
  • adjective Causing weariness; tiresome.
  • adjective Having one's patience, relish, or contentment exhausted; tired; sick; -- with of before the cause

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective A feeling of being mentally fatigued.
  • adjective Expressive of fatigue.
  • verb To make or to become weary.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb exhaust or get tired through overuse or great strain or stress
  • adjective physically and mentally fatigued
  • verb lose interest or become bored with something or somebody

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English weri, from Old English wērig.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English wēriġ

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Examples

  • Veery was trilling his _weary, weary, weary_ in the Elder thicket along the brook, when another, a larger animal, loomed up in the distant trail and glided silently toward Yan.

    Two Little Savages Being the adventures of two boys who lived as Indians and what they learned Ernest Thompson Seton 1903

  • —how he had grown weary for his native countryside, for the smithy: —weary of living always so far away from them all, and of the discipline—much harsher of late—as well as of his comrades, who called him “Prussian” because of his Alsatian accent.

    The Bad Zouave 1917

  • 33 _I grow weary. _ 4to 1681 'I grew weary'.p. 166, l. 2 _sure he knows me not. _ 1724 omits 'he'.p. 166, l. 16 _better than an Age of Scorn from a proud faithless

    The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume I Aphra Behn 1664

  • Hannah shifted her expression of weary dissatisfaction to Holly.

    A Light at Winter’s End Julia London 2011

  • That's how we cowgirls out in Colorado Springs like to greet one another when we return trail weary from the dusty plains.

    On the blueline: One game to go, vs. Canada, gold at stake 2010

  • Hannah shifted her expression of weary dissatisfaction to Holly.

    A Light at Winter’s End Julia London 2011

  • Instead, weary from the saddle, still numb, I slept the night through as if I had been dead.

    ON THE MAKALOA MAT 2010

  • At the sight of his human face, the first in weary months, I could have sprung forward and folded him in my arms

    A RELIC OF THE PLIOCENE 2010

  • Hannah shifted her expression of weary dissatisfaction to Holly.

    A Light at Winter’s End Julia London 2011

  • The Mavericks looked weary from the start, then lost Dirk Nowitzki early in the fourth quarter when the former MVP was called for a flagrant foul under the basket.

    USATODAY.com 2008

Comments

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  • Metaplastic homonyms like this one are a favorite of the Metaplasm team.

    “One that I heard my brother use a number of years ago was ‘weary’, as in ‘I’d be a little weary of doing that.’,�? Steve Terry explains. “Of course he meant either ‘leery’ or ‘wary’, but the inadvertant portmanteau was interesting in that ‘weary’ is something you might become if you were to do something you were leery or wary of.�?

    “Exactly right Steve,�? says Metaplasm staffer, Tim C. “I’m always weary of a trip to the in-laws and by the time the visit is over I’m weary from my trip to the in-laws.�?

    September 30, 2009