crying
- demanding attention or remedy; critical; severe: a crying evil.
- reprehensible; odious; notorious: a crying shame.
Origin of crying
cry
- to utter inarticulate sounds, especially of lamentation, grief, or suffering, usually with tears.
- to weep; shed tears, with or without sound.
- to call loudly; shout; yell (sometimes followed by out).
- to demand resolution or strongly indicate a particular disposition: The rise in crime cried out for greater police protection.
- to give forth vocal sounds or characteristic calls, as animals; yelp; bark.
- (of a hound or pack) to bay continuously and excitedly in following a scent.
- (of tin) to make a noise, when bent, like the crumpling of paper.
- to utter or pronounce loudly; call out.
- to announce publicly as for sale; advertise: to cry one's wares.
- to beg or plead for; implore: to cry mercy.
- to bring (oneself) to a specified state by weeping: The infant cried itself to sleep.
- the act or sound of crying; any loud utterance or exclamation; a shout, scream, or wail.
- clamor; outcry.
- a fit of weeping: to have a good cry.
- the utterance or call of an animal.
- a political or party slogan.
- battle cry.
- an oral proclamation or announcement.
- a call of wares for sale, services available, etc., as by a street vendor.
- public report.
- an opinion generally expressed.
- an entreaty; appeal.
- Fox Hunting.
- a pack of hounds.
- a continuous baying of a hound or a pack in following a scent.
- cry down, to disparage; belittle: Those people cry down everyone who differs from them.
- cry off, to break a promise, agreement, etc.: We made arrangements to purchase a house, but the owner cried off at the last minute.
- cry up, to praise; extol: to cry up one's profession.
- a far cry,
- quite some distance; a long way.
- only remotely related; very different: This treatment is a far cry from that which we received before.
- cry havoc. havoc(def 4).
- cry one's eyes/heart out, to cry excessively or inconsolably: The little girl cried her eyes out when her cat died.
- cry over spilled/spilt milk. milk(def 10).
- in full cry, in hot pursuit: The pack followed in full cry.
Origin of cry
Synonyms for cry
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comSynonym study
Related Words for crying
sobbing, mourning, pressing, compelling, tearful, critical, crucial, severe, urgentExamples from the Web for crying
Contemporary Examples of crying
This is a guy who has his son-in-law clean his eyeglasses, for crying out loud.
The “crying” incident is thought to have hurt Muskie in the primary--which he won handily, but with under 50 percent of the vote.
Teachers are told never to put an arm around a crying child.
After my crying spell stopped, I gritted my teeth, tucked my crutch under my right arm, and turned to my husband.
Suddenly, you are crying, breathless, raging, and on quieter days just going through the motions.
Historical Examples of crying
Maggie had stood on the hearthrug, in her large white apron, crying.
Life and Death of Harriett FreanMay Sinclair
She dropped her head on his arm, and he saw that she was crying.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
Her voice was muffled, and he knew then that she was crying.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
She had come through so much that every nerve was crying in passionate protest.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
If you have the pleasure of scolding, I surely can have that of crying.
The Imaginary InvalidMolire
crying
- (prenominal) notorious; lamentable (esp in the phrase crying shame)
cry
- (intr) to utter inarticulate sounds, esp when weeping; sob
- (intr) to shed tears; weep
- (intr usually foll by out) to scream or shout in pain, terror, etc
- (tr often foll by out) to utter or shout (words of appeal, exclamation, fear, etc)
- (intr often foll by out) (of animals, birds, etc) to utter loud characteristic sounds
- (tr) to hawk or sell by public announcementto cry newspapers
- to announce (something) publicly or in the streets
- (intr foll by for) to clamour or beg
- Scot to call
- cry for the moon to desire the unattainable
- cry one's eyes out or cry one's heart out to weep bitterly
- cry quits or cry mercy to give up a task, fight, etc
- the act or sound of crying; a shout, exclamation, scream, or wail
- the characteristic utterance of an animal or birdthe cry of gulls
- Scot a call
- archaic an oral announcement, esp one made by town criers
- a fit of weeping
- hunting the baying of a pack of hounds hunting their quarry by scent
- a pack of hounds
- a far cry
- a long way
- something very different
- in full cry (esp of a pack of hounds) in hot pursuit of a quarry
Word Origin for cry
Word Origin and History for crying
cry
early 13c., "beg, implore," from Old French crier, from Vulgar Latin *critare, from Latin quiritare "to wail, shriek" (source of Italian gridare, Old Spanish cridar, Spanish and Portuguese gritar), of uncertain origin; perhaps a variant of quirritare "to squeal like a pig," from *quis, echoic of squealing, despite ancient folk etymology that traces it to "call for the help of the Quirites," the Roman constabulary. The meaning was extended 13c. to weep, which it largely replaced by 16c. Related: Cried; crying.
Most languages, in common with English, use the general word for "cry out, shout, wail" to also mean "weep, shed tears to express pain or grief." Romance and Slavic, however, use words for this whose ultimate meaning is "beat (the breast)," cf. French pleurer, Spanish llorar, both from Latin plorare "cry aloud," but probably originally plodere "beat, clap the hands." Also Italian piangere (cognate with French plaindre "lament, pity") from Latin plangere, originally "beat," but especially of the breast, as a sign of grief. U.S. colloquial for crying out loud is 1924, probably another euphemism for for Christ's sake.
cry
late 13c., from cry (v.).