- cry
- cry vb Cry, weep, wail, keen, whimper, blubber mean to show one's grief, pain, or distress by tears and utterances, usually inarticulate utterances. Cry and weep (the first the homelier, the second the more formal term) are frequently interchanged.Cry is more apt to stress the audible lamentation, weep, the shedding of tears{
if you hear a child cry in the night, you must call to the nurse— Shak.
}{weep not, sweet queen; for trickling tears are vain— Shak.
}{wept unseen, unheeded cried— Millay
}Wail usually implies expressing grief without restraint, in mournful and often long-drawn-out cries, moans, and lamentations{"Where is my father, and my mother, nurse?" "Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corpse"— Shak.
}{hear him, o'erwhelmed with sorrow, yet rejoice; no womanish or wailing grief has part— Cowper
}{soon as she . . . saw the lifeblood flow . . . wailing loud she clasped him— Shelley
}Keen implies the wailing lamentations or dirges of a professional mourner{keen [means] hideous, dismal wailing or howling practiced in Ireland among the humbler classes in token of grief, at funerals, and on hearing news of a death or other calamity— Wyld
}{keened our sorrow— Punch
}{keened like a sqtiaw bereft— M. H. Moody
}Whimper implies low, whining, broken cries (as made by a baby or puppy){whimpering in fright
}{had seen the old general whimper like a whipped dog— F. M. Ford
}Blubber implies scalding, disfiguring tears and noisy, broken utterances (as of a child who cannot have his way){he always blubbers until those who oppose him give in to him
}{tears came easy to him; he could blubber like a child over a slight or a disappointment— S. H. Adams
}cry n vogue, rage, *fashion, style, mode, fad, craze, dernier cri
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
