cry me a river
1
9.6
- idiom
- Informal
:
llora un río
- After hearing his endless excuses, I told him to 'cry me a river' and move on.
Examples
-
When he started complaining about losing his wallet again, she just said, 'cry me a river.'
-
No one wanted to hear more complaints, so Mark sarcastically replied, 'cry me a river.'
-
Oh, you lost your phone? Cry me a river!
-
Cry me a river!
-
When she complained about her breakup, I couldn't help but think, 'Oh, cry me a river.'
-
After hearing him whine about his job, I said, 'Cry me a river; plenty of people have it worse.'
-
Instead of feeling sorry for her, I thought, 'Just cry me a river; this is not the end of the world.'
Synonyms
To make fun of someone who complains by saying their problem is not important
Antonyms
How Sincere
96
3.5
319
1.0
40
3.9
- Informal
1
9.6
40
7.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
cry + me + a + river
The words 'cry' and 'river' give a compositional image of excessive tears (so a learner might guess something about lots of crying), but the phrase's sarcastic, dismissive use ('mock sympathy') and its pragmatic force are not predictable from the constituents alone. Because there is a clear lexical cue (cry + river) but the idiomatic ironic function requires exposure, this is best classified as partially transparent.
Etymology
The idiom cry me a river paints a picture of someone crying so much that their cry fills a whole river. So when people say cry me a river, they give 'mock sympathy' — saying the person's complaints are exaggerated or 'not important'.