crocodile tears
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Fake tears or drama tears; fake crying.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
A great many crocodile tears were shed, for, since Unionists had such an elevated view of the principle of leadership, they were unable to accept that they had just driven their own leader from office.
They weep crocodile tears for the poor and disadvantaged, but are basically happy with things as they are.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Imported from Wikipedia “English-language idioms” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29), pending review.
Common questions
What does “crocodile tears” mean?
Fake tears or drama tears; fake crying.
Is “crocodile tears” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.