Tearjerking

adj, slang

adj, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Emotionally charged so as to induce sorrow. informal

    "Robert Zemeckis, a director previously known more for brittle, antihumanistic comedy (Used Cars, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Death Becomes Her) than heartwarming sentiment, moves into Oscar territory with an accomplished tearjerking comedy (1994) about a slow-witted southerner (Tom Hanks in the title role) living through an alternately auspicious and absurdist half-century of American history."

Example

More examples

"Robert Zemeckis, a director previously known more for brittle, antihumanistic comedy (Used Cars, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Death Becomes Her) than heartwarming sentiment, moves into Oscar territory with an accomplished tearjerking comedy (1994) about a slow-witted southerner (Tom Hanks in the title role) living through an alternately auspicious and absurdist half-century of American history."

Etymology

From tear + jerking.

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