verklempt

[ ver-klempt, vuh-, fer-, fuh- ]

adjective

, Informal.

1. overly emotional and unable to speak:

   She got all verklempt at a press conference talking about a charity that matches actors and musicians with sick kids.

Word History and Origins

Origin of verklempt¹

First recorded in 1990–95; from Yiddish verklempt, farklempt “overcome with emotion,” past participle of verklem(m)en, farklem(m)en “to clamp (in a vise), pinch, choke, choke up,” from German verklemmt “inhibited, uptight,” literally, “pinched, squeezed,” past participle of verklemmen “to become stuck”

Example Sentences

I sobbed all the way through the ceremony, and the tears—happy, sad, just generally verklempt—kept flowing as I screened the two-hour finale that will air on June 6.

From Time

Verklempt parents, myself included, have put their children on school buses for the first time.

From The Daily Beast

We sobbed in unison when Meryl Streep could barely talk about her husband without becoming visibly verklempt and touched.

From The Daily Beast