TEARFUL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tearful mean? 

• TEARFUL (adjective)
  The adjective TEARFUL has 2 senses:

1. filled with or marked by tears

2. showing sorrow

  Familiarity information: TEARFUL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TEARFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Filled with or marked by tears

Context example:

tearful entreaties

Similar:

liquid; swimming (filled or brimming with tears)

misty-eyed (having eyes blurred as with tears)

teary; teary-eyed; watery-eyed (with eyes full of tears)

sniffly; snuffling; snuffly (liable to sniffle)

weepy (liable to weep easily)

Antonym:

tearless (free from tears)

Derivation:

tearfulness (sadness expressed by weeping)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Showing sorrow

Synonyms:

dolorous; dolourous; lachrymose; tearful; weeping

Similar:

sorrowful (experiencing or marked by or expressing sorrow especially that associated with irreparable loss)

Derivation:

tearfulness (sadness expressed by weeping)

 Context examples 

She longed to bid me hasten my return; a thousand conflicting emotions rendered her mute as she bade me a tearful, silent farewell.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He was a tearful boy, and broke into such deplorable lamentations, when a cessation of our connexion was hinted at, that we were obliged to keep him.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The researchers also found that two-year-olds were more likely to exhibit emotional problems – including being worried, unhappy and tearful; scaring easily; or being clingy in new situations – if their parents had been having early postnatal relationship problems.

(Prenatal parental stress linked to behaviour problems in toddlers, University of Cambridge)