to make baby Jesus cry
1
9.9
- idiom
- Informal
:
hacer llorar al niño Jesús
- Her terrible singing would probably make baby Jesus cry.
Examples
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Leaving all the lights on is enough to make baby Jesus cry with frustration.
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Don't make baby Jesus cry!
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If you waste good chocolate, you'll make baby Jesus cry.
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Why would you make baby Jesus cry over a small mistake?
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When he complained about the free food at the charity event, it made baby Jesus cry.
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Her harsh criticism of the heartfelt gift was so rude that it made baby Jesus cry.
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If you keep being ungrateful, you're going to make baby Jesus cry with disappointment.
Synonyms
To cause very deep sadness or wonder that makes angels cry
Antonyms
How Disappointing
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verbs 'make' (cause) and 'cry' (shed tears) give a basic literal sense of causing sadness, so a learner can partially infer that someone or something is being made to be sad. However, the presence of the culturally loaded phrase 'baby Jesus' and the idiomatic, hyperbolic use (an exaggeration or moralized rebuke) are not fully predictable from the words alone, so the exact pragmatic force and humorous/exaggerated meaning may be missed by a B1 learner.
Etymology
Make baby Jesus cry comes from the image of the baby Jesus in a Christmas scene; people imagine that something very bad, rude, or wasteful would upset the little baby so much that he would cry. So people say it in a funny, exaggerated way to mean causing great 'sadness' or 'disappointment'.