aweary

English

Etymology

a- +‎ weary

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈwɪəɹi/
• Rhymes: -ɪəɹi

Adjective

aweary (comparative more aweary, superlative most aweary)

1. (poetic) Weary, tired.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     […] my little body is aweary of this great world.

   • 1830, Alfred Tennyson, Mariana:

     She said, 'I am aweary, aweary, / I would that I were dead!'

   • 1849+, George Ticknor, History Of Spanish Literature

     And all his people told him that their horses were aweary, and that they were aweary themselves.

   • 1854, Charles Dickens, “Second Book: Chapter VIII”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC:

     […] when he is aweary of vice, and aweary of virtue, used up as to brimstone, and used up as to bliss; then, whether he take to the serving out of red tape, or to the kindling of red fire, he is the very Devil.

   • 1871, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, The cloud confines, lines 49–50:

     The sky leans dumb on the sea, / Aweary with all its wings;

   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company - Chapter XII:

     "Nay, save that she seems aweary".

   • ante 1924 (posthumous, died 1910): Mark Twain, Autobiography

     I was aweary, aweary, and I put it in the waste basket. Ten days later the bill came again, and with it a shadowy threat. I waste-basketed it.

   • 1940, Ngaio Marsh, Death of a Peer:

     "I am aweary with watching," said Frid. "Praise to Allah the day is ours. Ho, slaves!"

References

• “aweary”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “aweary”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volumes I (A–C), New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.