breast-beating

American  

[brest-bee-ting] / ˈbrɛstˌbi tɪŋ /

noun

1. a loud and demonstrative display of grief, remorse, or the like.

   The authorities indulged in a great deal of breast-beating about traffic accidents but failed to pass new driving laws.

---

adjective

1. characterized by or involving breast-beating.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• breast-beater
  noun

Etymology

Origin of breast-beating

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

As the academy, and the industry, were facing a relatively hashtag-free moment in regards to issues of diversity, inequality and harassment, there was a lack of breast-beating in the presentation.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2023

Far too rarely does contemporary fiction and nonfiction provide the needed escape, regularly being gloomy, earnest and replete with finger-pointing and breast-beating.

From Washington Post • Mar. 31, 2021

At the other extreme to Gloria’s breast-beating lurked October’s title track, an austere, suitably autumnal-sounding piano ballad in which Bono’s vocals arrive only in the final 50 seconds.

From The Guardian • May 21, 2020

That is also, not coincidentally, the same stance that most of the media has taken, albeit after a brief bout of breast-beating and hysteria.

From Salon • Apr. 5, 2019

Frequent libations to the health of the departed soul soon produce their effect, and the family begins to express its grief in the most uproarious manner, by dismal exclamations, hair-tearing, and breast-beating.

From Cuba Past and Present by Davey, Richard