to cry

These words are used to describe when you produce tears, usually because of a strong emotion like sadness.

The most common word for this, with the broadest meaning, is cry. Cry is used when tears come out of your eyes when you feel a strong emotion. Most often, cry is used when someone feels a negative emotion, such as pain, sadness, or frustration. When it is used because someone feels joy or happiness, that is usually expressed.

A more literary and formal word for this is weep. Like cry, weep is most often used for negative emotions. When it is used for positive emotions, that is expressed.

If someone is crying a lot, you can say that they are crying their eyes out or sobbing their heart out. Sob your heart out is more common in UK English than in US English. Informally, you can also say that someone who is crying a lot is crying buckets. In UK English, you can also say that someone is weeping buckets, though crying buckets is more common.

There are many words to describe crying while making sounds. Bawl is used when someone is crying very loudly. It is sometimes used in the phrase bawl your eyes out to emphasize how much a person is crying. Sob is used when someone is crying very noisily and taking in deep breaths while they cry. Blubber is an informal and disapproving word that is used when someone cries noisily like a child, sometimes in a wet or messy way, or while trying to talk. In UK English, you can also use blub. All of these words are used mostly for negative emotions.

Grizzle is a UK English word that is only used of young children or babies. It refers to crying continuously, though not very loudly, usually because of pain or irritation. Grizzle is a disapproving word.

There are many phrases that you can use to describe someone beginning to cry, usually because they are no longer in control of their emotions. If someone begins to cry very suddenly in a way that is surprising or unexpected, you can say they have burst into tears or burst out crying. When someone slowly loses control of their emotions and begins to cry, you can say that person has dissolved into tears.

If someone has been struggling to stay in control of their emotions through a long or difficult event but can no longer control them and suddenly begins to cry, you can use the phrasal verb break down or the informal phrase lose it to describe this. Both of these phrases are usually used when someone has spent a lot of energy trying to control their feelings and fails. Break down is also used with verbs like cry and sob to emphasize the behavior.

The opposite of phrases like burst into tears is the phrase dry your eyes. Dry your eyes means 'to stop crying'. It is something you might say to a child rather than to someone who is older or more important than you.

If your eyes get wet with tears but you do not start crying, you can say that you have teared up or that you or your eyes have misted up or misted over. Both of these phrases are used to refer to positive emotions and negative emotions. Tear up is used mainly in US English.

If you almost start crying because of a very strong emotion, you can say that you are choked up or, informally, that something gets you. These phrases are used when you feel positive or negative emotions.

If someone is snivelling, they are crying slightly, but in a way that makes them look very weak or that makes other people dislike them for it.

If someone begins to cry in a way that seems to be too much for the situation and in a way that does not seem sincere, you can use the disapproving phrase turn on the waterworks. This phrase is somewhat old-fashioned.

• slower
• slowest
• slow-food
• slow food
• slow-growing
• slow-handclap
• slow handclap
• slowing
• slowings
• slow-lane
• slow lane
• slowlier
• slowliest
• slowly
• slowly but surely
• slowly-but-surely
• slow-motion
• slow motion
• slowness
• slownesses
• slow-pitch
• slow-pitch softball
• slow-pitch-softball
• slowpoke
• slowpokes