Crying

//ˈkɹaɪ̯.ɪŋ// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of one who cries; a weeping or shouting. countable, uncountable

    "Their constant cryings kept us awake!"

  2. 2
    the process of shedding tears (usually accompanied by sobs or other inarticulate sounds) wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of cry form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
  1. 1
    That cries. not-comparable

    "The crying child on the street was evidently lost."

  2. 2
    That demands action or attention; desperate. not-comparable

    "There is a crying need for more manual workers in this country."

  3. 3
    That deserves rebuke or censure; deplorable. not-comparable

    "It is a crying shame that he managed to get away with that!"

Adjective
  1. 1
    conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible wordnet
  2. 2
    demanding attention wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
insistentacuteardentatrociousbadbawling

Example

More examples

"Crying is an expression of grief."

Etymology

From cry + -ing.

Related phrases

asymmetric crying faciescrying room

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.