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View synonyms for tearful

tearful

[ teer-fuhl ]

adjective

  1. full of tears; tear; weeping.
  2. causing tears: tear:

    the tearful story of his poverty.



tearful

/ ˈtɪəfʊl /

adjective

  1. about to cry
  2. accompanying or indicative of weeping

    a tearful expression

  3. tending to produce tears; sad


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Derived Forms

  • ˈtearfulness, noun
  • ˈtearfully, adverb

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Other Words From

  • tearful·ly adverb
  • tearful·ness noun
  • half-tearful adjective
  • half-tearful·ly adverb
  • half-tearful·ness noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of tearful1

First recorded in 1580–90; tear 1 + -ful

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Example Sentences

In others, it’s prompted street protests, frantic PTA meetings, tearful city-council Zoom calls, and hundreds of angry emails and petitions.

From Time

The story has a tearful ending, as Lo Porto shared in mid-March that he had gotten word that Emil had passed, “and now he is reunited with his wife.”

From Ozy

Following a tearful confrontation with Kevin, Wendy resolves to stay married until their son goes off to college.

Tens of thousands of tearful supporters filed past Maradona’s coffin last week as his body lay in state in the presidential palace.

In a tearful address over video conference, Abovitz told employees that he would resign.

From Fortune

Dozens of tearful family members huddled at the Surabaya and Singapore airports, anxiously awaiting news of loved ones.

Attacked on Twitter and by outraged columnists for promoting sexism, Taylor issued a tearful public apology.

“We lost five members of the family and about 20 kids became orphans,” he said, in a tearful phone interview.

A few days after his arrest, she paid him a tearful visit at the West Side prison on Fifty fourth Street.

Standing on the pier was a crowd of tearful fans, dressed in their best flapper frocks.

Sick, trembling, her beautiful face humble and tearful enough now, she bent it on his shoulder in a shower of bitter tears.

I talked with the men in the bar, and later wandered into the parlor where the women were, some tearful, others indignant.

The poor, tearful desire lays a pale hand on reason's lips and gazes wistfully into the mysterious abyss of the Great Silence.

Great are the duties and tearful the days of a mother who has to raise her Son, who is also God, to be sacrificed on the cross.

Elizabeth turned her tearful face, smiling now, toward her cousin, but she said nothing.

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