vale of tears
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A state of suffering or hardship
Literally: valley of tears
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
In the words of the RNO ‘ It was the right decision, but it was a vale of tears.’
If you would all join hands, make a communion, perhaps we can assist our friend on his long journey to this vale of tears … ’
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “vale of tears” mean?
A state of suffering or hardship Literally: valley of tears
Is “vale of tears” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.