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

• breast-beater
  noun

Etymology

Origin of breast-beating

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

breast-beating

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

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

They cater to an audience; they prefer breast-beating to calm recitation, opinion to statistics.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2017

It’s a story about work that’s rarely cinematic, told without breast-beating or sensationalizing.

From The Verge ● Nov. 4, 2015

Red-Eye abruptly ceased his breast-beating and tooth-grinding, and ran across the timber-jam to the shore.

From Before Adam by London, Jack