crying
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Related to crying: tears
cry·ing
(krī′ĭng)adj.
1. Demanding or requiring action or attention: a crying need.
2. Abominable; reprehensible: a crying shame.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
crying
(ˈkraɪɪŋ)adj
(prenominal) notorious; lamentable (esp in the phrase crying shame)
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
cry•ing
(ˈkraɪ ɪŋ)adj.
1. demanding attention or remedy: a crying evil.
2. abominable; flagrant: a crying shame.
[1300–50]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Crying
See Also: GROANS AND WHISPERS, SCREAMS
- Bawling like sick monkeys —Henry Miller
- Cried naggingly, half-heartedly, like the grinding of a non-starting engine that has drained its battery —John Updike
- Cries out like an Arab, high wails like a dog or human in terrible pain. It rises and falls like sirens going by —Robert Campbell
- Cry, hopelessly and passively, like a child in a dentist’s waiting room —William Faulkner
- Cry like a rain-water spout in a shower —Charles Dickens
- Crying … muffled, like faraway nighttime waves —Z. Vance Wilson
- Crying out like an abandoned infant —T. Coraghessan Boyle
- (Gave a) cry like a startled sea gull —Oscar Wilde
- Her eyes [when she wept] were like syphon bottles under pressure —Erich Maria Remarque
- Her sob broke like a bubble on a pink geranium —John Malcolm Brinnin
See Also: DISINTEGRATION
- Kept on crying … like persistent rain —Elizabeth Spencer
- Like a waterpot I weep —A Broken-Hearted Gardener, anonymous nineteenth century verse
- A sad crying, like the birds going south for the winter to come —Ray Bradbury
- The shrill cry of the new-born … like the sound of the blade of a skate on ice —Angela Carter
- Sobbed … like an abandoned child —Maurice Hewlett
- A sob broke the surface like a bubble of air from the bottom of a pond —Sue Grafton
- Sobs … died off softly, like the intermittent drops that end a day of rain —Edith Wharton
- Sobs laboring like stones from her heaving breast —James Crumley
- Sobs rippled like convulsions through her slim body —James Crumley
- Thin cry [of a bluebird] like a needle piercing the ear —Theodore Roethke
- Wailed like an uneasy animal in pain —Kenneth Grahame
- Weeping like a calf —Francois Maspero
- Weeping raw as an open sausage —A. D. Winans
- Wept like a fountain —Erich Maria Remarque
- Wept like a gutter on a rainy day —Guy de Maupassant
- Wept like a woman deceived and forsaken by a lover —George Garrett
- Whimpers like a hurt dog —Robin McCorquodale
- Whine, as unctuous as old bacon grease —James Crumley
- (The twangy voice was beginning to) whine like a loosening guitar string —François Camoin
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
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Noun | 1. | crying - the process of shedding tears (usually accompanied by sobs or other inarticulate sounds); "I hate to hear the crying of a child"; "she was in tears" bodily function, bodily process, body process, activity - an organic process that takes place in the body; "respiratory activity" |
Adj. | 1. | crying - demanding attention; "clamant needs"; "a crying need"; "regarded literary questions as exigent and momentous"- H.L.Mencken; "insistent hunger"; "an instant need" imperative - requiring attention or action; "as nuclear weapons proliferate, preventing war becomes imperative"; "requests that grew more and more imperative" |
2. | crying - conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible; "a crying shame"; "an egregious lie"; "flagrant violation of human rights"; "a glaring error"; "gross ineptitude"; "gross injustice"; "rank treachery" conspicuous - obvious to the eye or mind; "a tower conspicuous at a great distance"; "wore conspicuous neckties"; "made herself conspicuous by her exhibitionistic preening" |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
crying
adjectiveThe American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
crying
[ˈkraɪɪŋ]Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
crying
adj (fig: = outrageous) injustice → schreiend; need → dringend; it is a crying shame → es ist jammerschade or ein Jammer
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
crying
[ˈkraɪɪŋ]1. adj (child) → in lacrime, piangente (fam) (need) → disperato/a, urgente; (injustice) → palese
it's a crying shame → è una vera vergogna
it's a crying shame → è una vera vergogna
2. n (weeping) → pianto
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995