CROCODILE TEARS Definition & Meaning

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crocodile tears

noun

(used with a plural verb) a hypocritical show of sorrow; insincere tears.
(used with a singular verb) Pathology. spontaneous tearing initiated by tasting or chewing food, occurring as a result of facial paralysis.

crocodile tears

plural noun

an insincere show of grief; false tears

crocodile tears

An insincere show of sympathy or sadness; crocodiles were once thought to “weep” large tears before they ate their victims: “Don't shed any crocodile tears for Fisher; I know you were responsible for his firing.”

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of crocodile tears¹

First recorded in 1555–65; so called from the ancient belief that crocodiles shed tears while eating their victims

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of crocodile tears¹

from the belief that crocodiles wept over their prey to lure further victims

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Idioms and Phrases

An insincere display of grief, as in When the play's star broke her leg, her understudy wept crocodile tears . This term comes from the mistaken notion that crocodiles weep while eating their prey, one held in ancient Roman times. The actual term was picked up by Shakespeare and many other writers after him, and remains current. [Late 1500s]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

The man might as well be wiping away his crocodile tears with $1,000 bills.

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The secret killers shedding crocodile tears over breakfast of smoked salmon!

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In their Wall Street Journal op-ed, Cruz and Britt shed crocodile tears over the fact that, following the Alabama decision, “confusion and misinformation has spread, inflamed by partisan commentary.”

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For her self-pitying act, Ellis drew widespread disdain for her "crocodile tears" and "barefaced lies that could give a coyote gastric distress."

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My favorite in this vein is a passage in AstraZeneca’s lawsuit shedding crocodile tears over the impact of the negotiation program on the development of “orphan” drugs.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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