reduced to tears
1
4.6
- idiom
:
reducido a lágrimas
- Seeing the puppy rescued from the shelter reduced me to tears of joy.
Examples
-
I stood in the wings, reduced to tears.
Fiction book (1997) -
I never thought to see Annabelle Jocelyn reduced to tears.
Fiction book (1990) -
These things always reduce me to tears, but actually knowing such excellent people for whom all of this is real and vital...
Blog text (31) -
Ali, who had served in the war, was reduced to tears.
Academic text (2002) -
Susan was reduced to tears.
Fiction book (1994) -
And yet, her simple question, "How do you feel about being a mom of 10 kids?" dropped me to my knees and reduced me to tears.
Blog text (22) -
Something inside her connects with the beautiful, frightening, wonderful, and terrible statue, reducing her to tears.
Fiction book (1997) -
Her first public appearance after Frank died had been at a suffrage rally, and the crowd's exuberance had reduced her to tears.
Fiction book (1997) -
My mother could be reduced to tears by the sight of fingerprints on the walls or a drip of gravy on her tablecloth.
Fiction book (2001) -
Goldberg, the man of culture, vitality, generosity, and principles, who waited on tables for a living until he was thirty-six, is reduced to tears by Olivier's King Lear.
Fiction book (1997)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To let tears fall because you feel sad or hurt
208
1.1
To cry and let tears fall because you feel sad or have strong feelings
111
3.9
To lose control of your feelings and cry or collapse
69
1.0
Short gasping sounds someone makes while crying loudly
64
2.0
Crying because you feel very sad or touched
38
1.0
Tears and sounds you make when you feel sad or hurt
26
1.8
Showing you are about to cry because of a strong feeling
24
2.4
To suddenly cry because of a strong feeling
21
2.0
Having eyes that look ready to cry
5
4.3
Feeling strong emotion that makes you cry
Showing sadness by crying
Antonyms
How Moved
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'caused to cry' is partially derivable because the construction 'reduce someone to X' maps onto a causative pattern (bring someone into a state) and 'tears' clearly denotes crying. However, 'reduce' in its basic sense ('make less') does not directly imply causing emotion, so the causative idiom 'reduced to tears' is not fully predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
The phrase reduced to tears may come from the older use of reduced meaning 'brought down'—imagine a strong feeling or event that brings a person down into tears. That's why it means 'made someone cry'.