cry

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English

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Etymology

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The verb is from Middle English crien (13th century), from Old French crier, from Vulgar Latin *crītāre, generally thought to derive from Classical Latin quirītāre (Proto-West Germanic *krītan has also been suggested as a source). The noun corresponds to Middle English cry, crie, from Old French cri, a deverbal of crier.

etymology note

Middle English crien eventually displaced native Middle English galen (“to cry out”) (from Old English galan), Middle English greden (“to cry out”) (from Old English grǣdan), Middle English yermen (“to bellow, mourn, lament”) (from Old English ġierman), Middle English hooen, hoen (“to cry out”) (from Old Norse hóa), Middle English remen (“to cry, shout”) (from Old English hrīeman, compare Old English hrēam (“noise, outcry, lamentation, alarm”)), Middle English greten, graten (“to weep, cry, lament”) (from Old English grǣtan and Old Norse gráta). More at greet, regret.

Already in the 13th century, the meaning was extended to include the sense "to shed tears" (natively weep); cry used in this sense had mostly replaced weep by the 16th century.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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cry (third-person singular simple present cries, present participle crying, simple past and past participle cried)

A woman crying (1)
  1. (intransitive) To shed tears; to weep. Especially in anger or sadness
    That sad movie always makes me cry.
    This heart-breaking moment gets me crying.
    That made me cried when I been traumatized about suicidal thoughts.
    If somebody cries in a bathtub they saw a ghost.
    • 2003, Sonic Team, Sonic Battle, Sega, published 2003, Game Boy Advance, level/area: Cream’s Story:
      - Emerl: “There’s nothing worse than making a girl cry!” That’s what Sonic said...
  2. (transitive) To utter loudly; to call out; to declare publicly.
  3. (transitive, intransitive) To shout, scream, yell.
  4. (intransitive, figuratively) To forcefully attract attention or proclaim one’s presence.
    • 1941, Theodore Roethke, “Open House”, in Open House; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, 1975, →ISBN, page 3:
      My secrets cry aloud.
      I have no need for tongue.
  5. (intransitive) To utter inarticulate sounds, as animals do.
  6. (transitive) To cause to do something, or bring to some state, by crying or weeping.
    Tonight I’ll cry myself to sleep.
  7. To make oral and public proclamation of; to notify or advertise by outcry, especially things lost or found, goods to be sold, auctioned, etc.
    to cry goods
    • 1652, Richard Crashaw, The Beginning of Heliodorus:
      Love is lost, and thus she cries him.
    • 1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 6, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 137:
      “We're in luck. Loren Passerine, the finest auctioneer in the West, will be crying today.” “Will be what?” “We say an auctioneer ‘cries’ a sale,” Cohen said.
    • 1976, Stan Rogers (lyrics and music), “Barrett's Privateers”, in Fogarty's Cove:
      Oh, Elcid Barrett cried the town / (How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now!) / For twenty brave men, all fishermen, who / Would make for him the Antelope's crew.
    1. Hence, to publish the banns of, as for marriage.
      • 1845, Sylvester Judd, Margaret: A Tale of the Real and the Ideal, Blight and Bloom; Including Sketches of a Place Not Before Described, Called Mons Christi:
        I should not be surprised if they were cried in church next Sabbath.

Conjugation

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Conjugation of cry
infinitive (to) cry
present tense past tense
1st-person singular cry cried, cryed†
2nd-person singular cry, criest†, cryest† cried, cryed†, criedst†, cryedst†
3rd-person singular cries, crieth†, cryeth† cried, cryed†
plural cry
subjunctive cry cried, cryed†
imperative cry —
participles crying cried, cryed†

†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Sranan Tongo: krei

Translations

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Noun

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cry (plural cries)

  1. A shedding of tears; the act of crying.
    After we broke up, I retreated to my room for a good cry.
  2. A shout or scream.
    I heard a cry from afar.
  3. Words shouted or screamed.
    a battle cry
  4. A clamour or outcry.
    • 1812, Alexander Chalmers, The General Biographical Dictionary:
      His pupil, Maimonides, that he might not be under the necessity of violating the laws of friendship and gratitude, by joining the general cry against Averroes, left Corduba.
  5. (collectively) A group of hounds.
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
      A cry more tunable / Was never hollaed to, nor cheered with horn.
    • 1667, Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II, in Edward Hawkins, The Poetical Works of John Milton: With Notes of Various Authors, Vol. I, W. Baxter, J. Parker, G. B. Whittaker (publs., 1824) pages 124 to 126, lines 648 to 659.
      […] Before the gates there sat / On either side a formidable shape; / The one seem’d woman to the waste, and fair, / But ended foul in many a scaly fold / Voluminous and vast, a serpent arm’d / With mortal sting: about her middle round / A cry of hell-hounds never ceasing bark’d / With wide Cerberean mouths full loud and rung / A hideous peal; yet, when they list,would creep, / If ought disturb'd their noise, into her womb, / and kennel there, yet there still bark’d and howl’d, / Within unseen. […]
  6. (by extension, obsolete, derogatory) A pack or company of people.
  7. (of an animal) A typical sound made by the species in question.
    "Woof" is the cry of a dog, while "neigh" is the cry of a horse.
    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 86:
      But the shrill wild cry of the heron overpowered the cries of all the other birds, whom it seemed to terrify; they were silent the moment they heard it, and a silence followed which made the interruption doubly unpleasant.
  8. A desperate or urgent request.
  9. (obsolete) Common report; gossip.

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

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References

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Anagrams

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Middle English

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from Old French cri, from crier; compare crien.

Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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cry (plural cries)

  1. A shout or yell; a loud vocalisation:
    1. A call of distress or sorrow.
    2. A plea for help or justice.
  2. An announcement or report:
    1. A proclamation or directive.
    2. A call for people; a summons.
  3. (by extension) A military force; a troop.
  4. The characteristic sound of an animal.
  5. (rare) The sound of a horn or trumpet.
Descendants
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References
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Etymology 2

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Verb

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cry

  1. Alternative form of crien

Middle French

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Noun

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cry m (plural crys)

  1. Alternative form of cri

Scots

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Etymology

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Middle English, from Old French crier.

Verb

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cry (third-person singular simple present cries, present participle cryin, simple past cried, past participle cried)

  1. to call, to give a name to
    A body whit studies the history is cried a historian an aw.
    (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Yola

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Noun

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cry

  1. Alternative form of crie
    • 1867, “SONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 7, page 108:
      An hea zet up a pouingaan an a cry.
      And he set up a puingaan and a cry.

Verb

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cry

  1. Alternative form of crie
    • 1867, “JAMEEN QOUGEELY EE-PEALTHE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 110, lines 7-8:
      'choo'd drieve aam aul awye to Kie o' Cress Farnogue, an maake aam cry, 'Rotheda Palloake !' "
      I would drive them all away to the quay of Cross Farnogue, and make them cry, 'Rotten Palluck !' "

References

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  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 108
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