lachrymatory
Americanadjective
noun
-
lachrymatories
plural
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of lachrymatory
1650–60; (noun) < Medieval Latin lachrymātōrium, equivalent to lachrymā ( re ) to shed tears + -tōrium -tory 2; (adj.) < Medieval Latin lachrymātōrius, equivalent to lachrymā ( re ) + -tōrius -tory 1; see lachrymal
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:
Onions make us teary because a reaction in the onion releases a chemical called lachrymatory factor, or LF, that irritates our eyes.
From New York Times ● Sep. 5, 2017
"What he was proposing to use in Mesopotamia was lachrymatory gas, which is essentially tear gas, not mustard gas."
From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2015
Again, walking into gas "pockets" up a trench one has been stopped as by a fierce blow across the eyes, the lachrymatory effect was so piercing and sudden.
From The Riddle of the Rhine; chemical strategy in peace and war by Victor Lefebure
"Here it is," and Coco has presented us with a small opaque lachrymatory, glistening all over in the exquisite irridescence of old glass.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 368, June 1846 by Various
Some are merely lachrymatory or "tear" shells; the gas affecting the eyes in such a manner as to produce constant "weeping" and consequent inability to see clearly.
From The Emma Gees by Herbert Wes McBride
At one point, Christle discovers that the Victorians did not actually collect their tears in glass vials, called lachrymatories; nonetheless, the image gives her a metaphor for her process.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 8, 2020
This, possibly the remains of lachrymatories, was very different from the modern bottle-green, which resembles the old Roman.
From The Land of Midian — Volume 1 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
Among a great number of lachrymatories and various other vessels in the British Museum, there is a small square bottle with a handle, the rudeness of which sufficiently bears out this opinion.
From Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art, (Vol. 2 of 3) by Shearjashub Spooner
The peasants, in digging, have likewise found many urns, lachrymatories, and sepulchral stones, with epitaphs, which are now dispersed among different convents and private houses.
From Travels through France and Italy by T. (Tobias) Smollett
Lachrymatories.—In many ancient places of sepulture we find long narrow phials which are called lachrymatories, and are supposed to have been receptacles for tears: can you inform me on what authority this supposition rests?
From Notes and Queries, Number 51, October 19, 1850 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.
