English · Idiom Candidate

cry someone a river

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

to feel intense sorrow or sadness for someone

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Cảm thấy nỗi buồn hoặc đau khổ sâu sắc cho ai đó

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to cry enough tears to fill a river

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

I'm crying you a river over your broken heart

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Water

Common questions

What does “cry someone a river” mean?

to feel intense sorrow or sadness for someone Literally: to cry enough tears to fill a river

Is “cry someone a river” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

👁 Views 0 today 0 past 7 days 0 this month 0 all time