crybaby
Americannoun
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crybabies
plural
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a person, especially a child, who cries readily for very little reason.
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a person who complains too much, usually in a whining manner.
verb (used without object)
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of crybaby
Explanation
A crybaby is someone who cries very easily and complains a lot. If you have a younger sister, you've probably called her a crybaby from time to time. You might be tempted to call someone whose feelings are very easily hurt, who is extremely sensitive and quick to burst into tears, a crybaby. It's a fairly derogatory term, however, and being called a crybaby will only make a crybaby cry even harder. The word dates from around 1850, and it's native to the United States, from the idea that someone "cries like a baby."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Musk himself is the biggest crybaby of all, telling the Washington Post, "People were burning Teslas. Why would you do that? That’s really uncool."
From Salon ● May 30, 2025
The Angels’ injuries have made the season difficult enough without a manager acting like a crybaby every time a call doesn’t go his way.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2023
State Rep. Sara Carruthers chided Merrin in a Dayton Daily News interview, calling him a crybaby who couldn’t stand being outmaneuvered.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 14, 2023
“This letter is so pathetic in terms of whining: Mr. Free Speech Absolutist, just a crybaby hiding behind his lawyers,” Mr. O’Dowd told The Washington Post.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 25, 2022
“These children have many fault, neh? I forget children tears. I ever tell you your father crybaby when he little? Hai, you would not believe it today, though.”
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
It's also because it's the car of crybabies.
From Salon ● May 30, 2025
Personally, I think most of us sound like spoiled crybabies on gas prices.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2022
The time for tolerating the selfish crybabies may be coming to an end.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 25, 2021
And yet it’s hard for me not to anthropomorphize these platforms, looking around at all the crybabies whining that they don’t treat every single user exactly the same in every situation, and collapsing in frustration.
From The Verge ● Jul. 12, 2019
The glory of elfdom shall not be dimmed by the whining of a few crybabies.
From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
I am not crybabying to the Judge or making any kick about things.
From The Virginian, a Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
