adjective
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about to cry
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accompanying or indicative of weeping
a tearful expression
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tending to produce tears; sad
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tearful
Explanation
Before you break out in a full-fledged cry — when you're wiping your eyes and blowing your nose, you're tearful. If a person is tearful, he or she is full of tears. Most of them haven't flowed, but you can see them in someone's eyes. If you break out in a full-fledged cry, you're no longer tearful, you're weeping. If something is tearful, there are lots of tears involved. Think about the last time you said a tearful goodbye to a good friend, gave your sister a tearful hug, or witnessed a victim's tearful plea for mercy.
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.
Videos circulated by local and pro-Cuba outlets showed a tearful send-off from residents who gave the departing Cuban staff an ovation as they left the ophthalmology clinics they had been operating.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 9, 2026
Officials who survived the war showed their grief and displayed a united front on Friday, with parliament speaker and top negotiator in the US talks Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf visibly tearful.
From Barron's • Jul. 3, 2026
A tearful Walter Cronkite, taking off his glasses after announcing the president’s death.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 29, 2026
NBC’s “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie made a tearful, emotional plea Tuesday after revelations that a second ransom note sent following her mother’s abduction revealed she died sometime after the abduction.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 23, 2026
At 1:45, client Kiev Schoening ascended the final rise, pulled out a photo of his wife and children, and commenced a tearful celebration of his arrival on top of the world.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
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.
