Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Wail

Wail , transitive verb

[Compare Icelandic val choice, velja to choose, akin to Gothic waljan, German wahlen.]

To choose; to select. [Obsolete]
Wailed wine and meats. — Henryson

Wail , transitive verb

[Old English wailen, weilen, probably from Icelandic vala; compare Icelandic va, vei, woe, and English wayment, also Old English wai, wei, woe. Compare Woe.]

To lament; to bewail; to grieve over; as, to wail one's death. — Shakespeare

Wail , intransitive verb

To express sorrow audibly; to make mournful outcry; to weep.
Therefore I will wail and howl.

Wail , noun

Loud weeping; violent lamentation; wailing.
The wail of the forest. — Longfellow