On this page12 sections
- Quick picker: which idiom do you need?
- Idioms for crying hard
- Idioms for starting to cry
- Idioms for being close to tears
- Idioms for trying not to cry
- Idioms for what makes someone cry
- Idioms for fake or tactical crying
- Idioms for happy tears
- How to choose the right one
- Idioms that are easy to misuse
- Practice
- Quick answers
The most common idioms for crying are cry your eyes out (cry hard and for a long time), burst into tears (start crying suddenly), break down (lose control and cry), well up and tear up (eyes fill with tears), a lump in your throat (emotion before tears), fight back tears (try not to cry) and crocodile tears (fake crying). Below they are grouped by how hard someone is crying, what made them cry and whether the tears are real, each with its meaning and a sentence about crying, followed by a quick picker, idioms that are easy to misuse and a short practice set with answers.
If you need a refresher on what makes a phrase an idiom rather than a metaphor or simile, see our guide to figurative language. This page sticks to the crying expressions themselves.
Quick picker: which idiom do you need?
- Crying very hard: cry your eyes out, sob your heart out, bawl your eyes out, cry a river, cry like a baby, cry yourself to sleep
- Starting to cry suddenly: burst into tears, break down, dissolve into tears, the floodgates opened, turn on the waterworks (sometimes)
- Almost crying: well up, tear up, get choked up, a lump in your throat, on the verge of tears, eyes brimming with tears
- Trying not to cry: fight back tears, choke back tears, hold back tears, keep a stiff upper lip, put on a brave face
- Something that makes people cry: bring tears to your eyes, reduce someone to tears, move someone to tears, a tearjerker, enough to make a grown man cry
- Fake or tactical crying: crocodile tears, turn on the waterworks, cry wolf (a related idea, not about tears)
- Happy tears: tears of joy, cry with happiness, laugh till you cry
Idioms for crying hard
These describe heavy, long or loud crying. Most of them are informal and slightly exaggerated, which is the point: they tell the listener this was not a polite tear or two.
| Idiom | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| cry your eyes out | cry very hard for a long time | She cried her eyes out the night her grandmother died. |
| cry your heart out | cry with deep sadness, often until you feel emptied | He went up to his room and cried his heart out. |
| sob your heart out | cry loudly, with heaving breaths | The little boy sobbed his heart out when his rabbit went missing. |
| bawl your eyes out | cry loudly, often like a child; informal | I bawled my eyes out at the end of that film, and I’m not ashamed of it. |
| cry a river | cry a great deal; often used sarcastically (“cry me a river”) | She cried a river after the break-up. / You lost one game? Cry me a river. |
| cry like a baby | cry openly and without control (used of adults) | My dad cried like a baby at my wedding. |
| cry buckets / weep buckets | cry a lot; informal, mostly British | We all cried buckets at the farewell party. |
| cry yourself to sleep | cry in bed until you fall asleep | For weeks after the move, she cried herself to sleep. |
| cry yourself sick | cry so much you feel ill | He cried himself sick the day the dog was put down. |
| be in floods of tears | be crying a great deal; British | When I got home, my sister was in floods of tears. |
| be in pieces | be extremely upset and crying; informal | She was in pieces at the funeral. |
| wail like a banshee | cry or scream with a long, high sound; humorous or hyperbolic | The baby wailed like a banshee until someone picked her up. |
Note: “cry me a river” is almost always sarcastic. It tells someone their complaint does not deserve sympathy, so never use it to a person who is genuinely upset.
Idioms for starting to cry
Use these when the moment the tears begin matters, for example in a story or when you describe someone’s reaction to news.
| Idiom | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| burst into tears | suddenly start crying | When she read the letter, she burst into tears. |
| break down (in tears) | lose emotional control and start crying | He held it together all day, then broke down in the car. |
| dissolve into tears | start crying helplessly; a little literary | Halfway through her speech, the bride’s mother dissolved into tears. |
| the floodgates opened | someone who had been holding back suddenly cried a lot | One kind word from her teacher and the floodgates opened. |
| give way to tears | stop resisting and begin to cry; formal or literary | At last, alone in the kitchen, she gave way to tears. |
| go to pieces | become so upset you cannot cope, often crying | He went to pieces when the doctor gave him the news. |
| lose it | lose control, by crying or by getting angry; informal | I was fine until they played our song, and then I completely lost it. |
Break down and lose it do not always mean crying. “The car broke down” is mechanical, and “he lost it” can mean he shouted. Add “in tears” or make the context clear if crying is what you mean.
Idioms for being close to tears
These are the most useful in everyday speech and writing, because people describe near-tears far more often than full sobbing. They are also gentle enough for formal contexts such as a eulogy or a thank-you speech.
| Idiom | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| well up | tears fill your eyes (your eyes well up, or tears well up) | His eyes welled up as he thanked the nurses. |
| tear up | start to have tears in your eyes, usually briefly; American English mainly | I always tear up at graduation ceremonies. |
| get choked up | feel so emotional that it is hard to speak | She got choked up reading the card her students made. |
| have a lump in your throat | feel a tight throat because you are about to cry | Watching my son walk into school on his first day, I had a lump in my throat. |
| on the verge of tears / close to tears | about to cry | By the end of the phone call, he was on the verge of tears. |
| eyes brimming with tears | eyes so full of tears that they are about to spill | She looked up at me, her eyes brimming with tears. |
| a catch in your voice | a small break in the voice that shows emotion | There was a catch in his voice when he mentioned his father. |
| shed a tear | cry a little; often in the negative (“didn’t shed a tear”) | I shed a tear when the old cinema closed. / She didn’t shed a tear when he left. |
| misty-eyed | with eyes slightly wet, often from nostalgia | Grandpa got misty-eyed looking at the old photos. |
Frog in your throat is not one of these. It means your voice is hoarse or croaky, usually from a cold or nerves, not that you are about to cry. Use “a lump in your throat” for emotion.
Idioms for trying not to cry
| Idiom | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| fight back tears | try hard not to cry | The captain fought back tears as he lifted the trophy. |
| choke back tears | stop yourself crying, often while speaking | Choking back tears, she read the poem at her mother’s funeral. |
| hold back tears | keep yourself from crying | I could barely hold back my tears when the kids sang. |
| blink back tears | blink to stop tears from falling | He blinked back tears and kept talking. |
| keep a stiff upper lip | hide your feelings and stay calm in a sad situation; associated with Britain | My grandmother kept a stiff upper lip through the whole funeral. |
| put on a brave face | look calm or cheerful while you are upset | She put on a brave face for the children, then cried in the shower. |
| keep it together | stay in control of your emotions; informal | I just need to keep it together until the end of the ceremony. |
Idioms for what makes someone cry
| Idiom | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| bring tears to your eyes | make you cry or nearly cry (sad or happy) | The way he spoke about his wife brought tears to my eyes. |
| reduce someone to tears | make someone cry, usually by being harsh | The coach’s shouting reduced two of the players to tears. |
| move someone to tears | affect someone so deeply that they cry; positive or neutral | The choir’s performance moved the whole audience to tears. |
| drive someone to tears | upset someone so much over time that they cry | The constant noise from next door nearly drove her to tears. |
| a tearjerker | a film, book or story designed to make people cry | Don’t watch that film on a plane; it’s a real tearjerker. |
| enough to make a grown man cry | very sad, frustrating or disappointing; often humorous | The price of tickets this year is enough to make a grown man cry. |
| tug at your heartstrings | make you feel pity or tender sadness | The advert, with the old dog waiting by the door, really tugs at the heartstrings. |
Notice the difference between reduce to tears (someone was hurt or humiliated) and move to tears (someone was touched). “The speech reduced me to tears” suggests the speech was cruel, which is probably not what a happy guest means.
Idioms for fake or tactical crying
| Idiom | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| crocodile tears | tears or sorrow that are not sincere | The minister shed crocodile tears over the job losses he had voted for. |
| turn on the waterworks | start crying, often to get sympathy or your own way; informal | As soon as she was told off, she turned on the waterworks. |
| cry wolf | keep raising false alarms, so nobody believes you when it is real | He has cried wolf about being ill so often that no one checks on him anymore. |
Where “crocodile tears” comes from: an old belief, recorded in medieval travel writing, said crocodiles wept while eating their prey. The phrase has been used in English for insincere sorrow since at least the 1500s. Cry wolf comes from Aesop’s fable of the shepherd boy who raised false alarms about a wolf. Note that cry wolf is about false warnings, not tears, so use it only when someone exaggerates a problem.
Idioms for happy tears
- tears of joy – crying because you are happy: She wept tears of joy when the adoption was approved.
- cry with happiness / cry with relief – When the surgeon came out smiling, we all cried with relief.
- laugh till you cry – laugh so hard that tears come: We laughed till we cried at his impression of the headteacher.
- happy tears – informal, common in messages: Happy tears over here – congratulations!
How to choose the right one
- Match the strength. “Her eyes welled up” and “she cried her eyes out” describe very different scenes. Readers notice when a light moment is described with a heavy idiom.
- Match the register. In a eulogy, condolence note or formal report, prefer was moved to tears, was close to tears, fought back tears. Save bawl, waterworks, cry buckets, lose it for friends and fiction.
- Be careful with sarcasm. “Cry me a river”, “turn on the waterworks” and “crocodile tears” all question whether the crying is deserved or real. Using them about someone who is grieving is cruel.
- In fiction, one idiom is usually enough. “Her eyes brimmed with tears, she cried her eyes out and the floodgates opened” piles up three images. Pick one, and let actions (a hand over the mouth, a shaking breath) do the rest.
- Keep the possessive consistent. The idiom changes with the person: I cried my eyes out, you cried your eyes out, he cried his eyes out. “She cried her eyes out”, not “she cried your eyes out”.
Idioms that are easy to misuse
- “Cry until the cows come home” is not a crying idiom. Until the cows come home means “for a very long time, with no result”, so “You can complain until the cows come home, it won’t change anything” works; it says nothing about tears.
- “Fall apart” means being unable to cope; it does not have to involve crying. Say “fell apart and cried” if you need both.
- “Paint the town red” means go out and celebrate, never anything to do with sadness or anger.
- “Cry over spilt milk” means being upset about something that cannot be changed, usually something minor: The vase is broken; there’s no use crying over spilt milk. It is advice not to dwell on a problem, not a description of tears.
- “A frog in your throat” is a hoarse voice, not emotion (see above).
- Phrases such as “cry blood”, “cry fit to kill” and “cry enough to float a boat” appear in some idiom lists but are not established English idioms. Avoid them in writing that has to sound natural.
Practice
Choose the best idiom for each gap.
- When the nurse told her the baby was healthy, she ______ (started crying suddenly).
- He was ______ during the speech but managed not to cry.
- I always ______ at weddings, just a little.
- Don’t believe his apology. Those are ______.
- The documentary about the rescued dogs is a real ______.
- Her manager’s harsh comments ______ in front of the whole team.
- After the funeral, she went home and ______ (cried very hard).
- Our dog’s adoption story ______ (made us almost cry).
Answers
- burst into tears
- fighting back tears / choking back tears (or: had a lump in his throat)
- tear up / well up / get misty-eyed
- crocodile tears
- tearjerker
- reduced her to tears
- cried her eyes out / cried her heart out
- brought tears to our eyes
Quick answers
What is a formal way to say someone cried?
She was moved to tears, he was visibly emotional, she wept, he was close to tears. “Wept” is a perfectly good formal verb; the idioms with buckets, bawling and waterworks are informal.
What is an idiom for crying a lot?
Cry your eyes out is the most common, with cry your heart out, sob your heart out, be in floods of tears (British) and cry a river as alternatives.
What is an idiom for not crying when you are sad?
Keep a stiff upper lip, put on a brave face, keep it together and fight back tears.
Are there similes and metaphors for crying too?
Yes. Similes compare tears to something (“cried like a child”, “tears ran like rain”) and metaphors describe them as something else (“a storm of tears”). See our pages on similes for crying and metaphors for crying. For the feeling behind the tears, try idioms for sadness and idioms for grief.