to cry the blues
1
7.5
- idiom
- /kraɪ ðə bluz/
- Informal
:
quejarse
- They cry the blues because patriotic Americans don't want their mosque near Ground Zero; yet we certainly couldn't build a church in their backyard.
Examples
-
Well it's just a little too late to be crying the blues now, isn't it?
-
Now I know you haters out there, and you know who you are, will cry the blues over my changes.
Blog text (23) -
You will be crying the blues.
Blog text (22) -
Just crying the blues and drinking cheap liquor.
Fiction book (2002) -
I have heard right-wingers cry the blues about abortion, yet it is no problem to kill thousands in a war or Texas prison.
Blog text (28) -
Who can pass that up? They may soon be crying the blues without the federal government to keep their borders as safe as they are now, using Texas money alone!
Blog text (28) -
These liberal left-wing Jewish morons will cry the blues when Israel is destroyed.
Blog text (6) -
After losing the game, the players gathered in the locker room, crying the blues over their missed chances.
-
Whenever she faced difficulties at work, she would sit in her car, crying the blues and wondering what went wrong.
-
He spent the afternoon crying the blues about his broken relationship to his best friend.
Synonyms
208
1.1
To cry and let tears fall because you feel sad or have strong feelings
62
5.0
To show or say that you feel sad about something
39
5.9
Cry or shout loudly and without control
14
6.1
To cry loudly and without control, often while talking
14
3.5
Cry a little, often with one tear
12
6.5
To be sad for a short time
11
7.4
To complain in a whining, tearful way
7
4.2
Cry for a long time because you feel very sad
3
7.0
Feel sad and a little down
3
7.6
Cry very loudly and for a long time
2
9.6
To show deep sadness and regret about something
1
6.4
To complain in a bad-tempered way
1
9.2
Cry in a noisy, gasping way
1
8.7
Complain a lot in a dramatic way about something that upsets you
1
9.9
To feel upset and moody after something disappointing
To feel sorry for yourself and complain to get sympathy
Antonyms
How Sad
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'cry' (to shed tears/express sorrow) with 'the blues' (sadness); together they transparently convey expressing sadness or lamenting. This composition follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern of 'cry + one’s sadness' and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The idiom cry the blues comes from old American songs where singers would loudly cry about sad things in music called the blues. So 'to cry the blues' today means to show you are sad or 'complain' about hard times.