tearful
adjUK /ˈtɪə(ɹ)fʊl/ · US /ˈtɪɹfʊl/
Etymology From tear + -ful.
1
Accompanied by tears; crying, or about to cry.
- Aaron got a little tearful until Laura came to reassure him.
- The week that was yet to elapse, she spent in wandering through her uncle's favourite walks in hours of tearful vigil, beside his tomb, and in collecting together every trifle on which he had set a value.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Remembrance of the Dead”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 322:
2
Sorrowful.
- Receiving the news of Joseph Beam's death two days after Christmas was a piercing blow that sent me into a tearful and contemplative stupor from which I have not yet emerged.1989 February 5, Craig G. Harris, “Your Life's All In Your Dreams And Your Dreams Are All In Your Life”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 29, page 9:
- Synonyms
- cryey, crysome, lachrymate, lachrymose, larmoyant, maudlin, moist, sobful, tearful, teary, watery, weepy
- Antonyms
- dry-eyed, tearless, unlachrymose, untearful
- Derived terms
- tearfully, tearfulness, untearful
- Hyponyms
- dewy-eyed, misty, teary-eyed