Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To weep aloud with convulsive gasping; cry uncontrollably. synonym: cry.
  • intransitive verb To make a sound resembling that of loud weeping.
  • intransitive verb To utter with sobs.
  • intransitive verb To put or bring (oneself) into a specified condition by sobbing.
  • noun The act or sound of sobbing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To sigh strongly with a sudden heaving of the breast or a kind of convulsive motion; weep with convulsive catchings of the breath.
  • To make a sound resembling a sob.
  • To give forth or utter with sobs; particularly, to say with sobbing.
  • In lute-playing, to deaden the tone of by damping the string, or relaxing the finger by which it is stopped.
  • To frighten.
  • To sup; suck up.
  • To sop; soak with a liquid.
  • noun A convulsive heaving of the breast and inspiration of breath, under the impulse of painful emotion, and accompanied with weeping; a strong or convulsive sigh. It consists of a short, convulsive, somewhat noisy respiratory movement.
  • noun A sound resembling the sobbing of a human being.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To sigh with a sudden heaving of the breast, or with a kind of convulsive motion; to sigh with tears, and with a convulsive drawing in of the breath.
  • transitive verb obsolete To soak.
  • noun The act of sobbing; a convulsive sigh, or inspiration of the breath, as in sorrow.
  • noun Any sorrowful cry or sound.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a cry with a short, sudden expulsion of breath.
  • verb intransitive to weep with convulsive gasps.
  • verb transitive to say (something) while sobbing.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb weep convulsively
  • noun insulting terms of address for people who are stupid or irritating or ridiculous
  • noun a dyspneic condition
  • noun convulsive gasp made while weeping

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sobben, perhaps of Low German origin.]

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