lachrymatory
Americanadjective
noun
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
"She takes the lachrymatory for a golden vase, which your excellency is presenting to her as a present."
From The Youth of the Great Elector by Mühlbach, L. (Luise)
Roman vessels—a red thing that might have been a lamp, another that might have been a lachrymatory.
From The Daisy chain, or Aspirations by Yonge, Charlotte Mary
In Champagne the Germans kept the French occupied with heavy shells and "lachrymatory projectiles."
From The Story of the Great War, Volume IV (of 8) Champagne, Artois, Grodno; Fall of Nish; Caucasus; Mesopotamia; Development of Air Strategy; United States and the War by Miller, Francis Trevelyan
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
Farce bottleth up her crocodile tears, or labelleth her empty lachrymatories.
From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 6 Letters 1821-1842 by Lamb, Mary
Some of these are thought to be Phœnician tombs, as lamps and lachrymatories have been found in them.
From The Story of Malta by Ballou, Maturin Murray
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 Smollett, T. (Tobias)
These tesserae, with the pottery, tiles, coins, lachrymatories, sepulchral urns, etc., excavated from time to time in and about the church, are clear indications of an important Roman settlement.
From Bell's Cathedrals: Southwark Cathedral Formerly the Collegiate Church of St. Saviour, Otherwise St. Mary Overie. A Short History and Description of the Fabric, with Some Account of the College and the See by Worley, George
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.
