lachrymal
Americanadjective
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of or relating to tears.
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producing tears.
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characterized by tears; indicative of weeping.
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Anatomy. lacrimal.
noun
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Also called lachrymal bone. Anatomy. lacrimal bone.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- postlachrymal adjective
Etymology
Origin of lachrymal
1535–45; < Medieval Latin lachrymālis, equivalent to Latin lachrym ( a ) (Hellenized spelling of lacrima, lacruma (OL dacrima ) tear, probably ≪ Greek dákrȳma, derivative of dákry; tear 1 ) + -ālis -al 1
Explanation
Lachrymal things have something to do with tears or crying. Your dramatic friend's lachrymal outburst after you forgot her birthday probably included a lot of weeping and wailing. When you spell lachrymal with a y, it tends to be literary or old-fashioned, like the lachrymal heroine of a nineteenth century novel. When it's spelled lachrimal, the meaning is usually more scientific, like the lachrimal gland in your eye, from which tears fall when you're sad or chopping onions. Lachrymal comes from the Greek dakryma, "tear," by way of the Latin lacrima, also "tear."
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.
It is one of several recent recordings that suggest that the pedal steel — familiar mostly for the lachrymal textures it has long lent to country music — is finding renewal in unexpected places.
From New York Times • Aug. 3, 2022
Her pseudo-sympathetic tears are the lachrymal corollary to the famous line from Hamlet that one can “smile and smile and smile and be a villain.”
From The Verge • Jan. 9, 2018
They are produced both by thoughts and the lachrymal glands.
From The Guardian • Apr. 13, 2013
But if you’re on the wrong side of the box score, you’re doomed as soon as you lose control of your lachrymal ducts.
From Newsweek • Mar. 9, 2011
The lachrymal foramen is in front of the margin of the orbit.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 10 "Echinoderma" to "Edward" by Various
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.
