Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An insincere display of grief; false tears.
Wiktionary
- n. Plural form of crocodile tear.
- n. idiomatic A display of tears that is forced or false.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. false or affected tears; hypocritical sorrow; -- derived from the fiction of old travelers, that crocodiles shed tears over their prey.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a hypocritical display of sorrow; false or insincere weeping
Etymologies
- From the belief that crocodiles weep either to lure a victim or when eating one. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Gary stood in his baby bed, one hand on the rail, crocodile tears rolling down his cheeks, his other hand reaching and grabbing toward the doorway, gesturing and crying, “’ont sausage.””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘crocodile tears’.
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Animal kings
crocodilian, lagomorph, ovine, bovine, lupine, minatory, arthropod, zoömimetic, nag, pronk, entomology, buffalo and 34 more...
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that's just beastly!
cat-o-nine-tails, snake in the grass, puppy love, white elephant, crocodile tears, monkey business, keep the wolf fro..., culture vulture, black sheep of th..., scapegoat, ugly duckling, swan song and 260 more...
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simple & useful9
heartrendingly, rancorous, ferocity, earful, dispiriting, dandification, ascribing, monotonic, smattering, yesteryear, sword of damocles, blubbering and 104 more...
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Special Beasts
I'm looking for compounds or phrases where the character of an animal is essential to the meaning, yet the term is usable in general conversation.
scapegoat, bull market, sacred cow, bear market, hangdog, cat o' nine tails, clothes horse, mousey, donkey drop, black sheep, horseplay, ducks and drakes and 94 more...
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Noah's Park
Hello, and Welcome™! Come and visit our most diverse land of our Animalesque™ adventures. Here at Noah's Park™ we have Virtually All You'd Ever Want To See™. An experience that is related to ani...
sheep's eyes, doe-eyed, cat-eyed, bug-eyed, cat's paw, black swan, leapfrog, menagerie, cold turkey, card shark, snail's pace, bull's eye and 362 more...
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Animalia Wordia
Words or short phrases with animal names in them. Since I already have a dedicated list for 'monkey' words I shall leave them out of this one for the moment.
paper tiger, pigeon-hearted, lion-hearted, sacred cow, chicken heart, fraidy cat, scaredy-cat, snake oil, can of worms, snake pit, rat's nest, stool pigeon and 114 more...
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C is for Caddyshack
My C Words
cavalcade, charlie browniest, cakewalk, clambake, caboose, cadaver, caddyshack, cadillac, cahoots, calaboose, cannonball, canopy and 145 more...
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Fun Phrases & Idioms
dust up, wreak havoc, the willies, cash cow, average joe, drama queen, fancy pants, houston we have a..., in your face, just deserts, kangaroo court, quality time and 78 more...
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idioms
don't shoot the m..., blood from a turnip, a watched pot nev..., underfoot, to each his own, cut to the chase, cut the mustard, grand purpose, pass the buck, throw under the bus, scapegoat, strike a chord and 27 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for crocodile tears.
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