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Glite Dictionary
ninjas cutting onions

ninjas cutting onions

9.9
A joking excuse for tears when something makes you feel emotional
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : los ninjas cortando cebollas
  • When tears welled up during the heartfelt speech, she blamed it on ninjas cutting onions.

Examples

  • He laughed and said it was just ninjas cutting onions when he teared up at the wedding.

  • Why am I so emotional? Oh right, those ninjas cutting onions!

  • As the movie reached its emotional ending, he joked about ninjas cutting onions in the room.

  • I can't believe I'm crying; it must be those ninjas cutting onions again.

  • He laughed and said it was just ninjas cutting onions when he teared up at the wedding.

  • As the movie reached its emotional ending, he joked about ninjas cutting onions in the room.

  • I can't believe I'm crying; it must be those ninjas cutting onions again.

Synonyms

cutting onions
vsninjas cutting onions
  • Informal
8.0

A joking way to say someone seems to be crying from strong feelings

is a playful excuse blaming unseen agents for causing tears

Surface Forms

ninjas cutting onions main

Morphology

ninja + cut + onion

The literal combination of 'ninja' + 'cutting' + 'onions' is interpretable (onions make people cry, so unseen ninjas cutting onions could explain tears), so the constituents give a clear clue. However, the conventional humorous/pragmatic use as a jokey blame for unexpected tears relies on cultural knowledge and pragmatic inference beyond pure compositionality, making it partially predictable but not fully transparent to an uninformed B1 learner.

Etymology

Ninjas cutting onions creates a funny image of quiet ninjas in the room cutting onions, so people nearby begin to cry. People use this joke to 'explain away' sudden tears or strong feelings without saying the real reason.