crying

«crying» in Mova's school dictionary: having tears coming from your eyes, usually because you… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb form (-ing form of cry: cry, cries, cried, crying); noun (crying, uncountable); adjective (a crying baby)

meaning for a pupil

1) Crying means having tears coming from your eyes, usually because you are sad, hurt or scared. tree →

2) People sometimes cry because they are very happy or laughing hard. tree →

3) Crying can also mean shouting loudly, as in «crying for help» or «crying out». tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories crying shows a character's strong feelings: sadness, pain, fear or great joy. In everyday life a crying baby may be hungry, tired or uncomfortable, because babies cannot speak. In lessons about feelings, crying is a normal, healthy way to let out sadness, and anyone (boys and girls, children and adults) may cry. Phrases: burst out crying, cry for help, cry your eyes out, stop crying.

examples

• The baby was crying because she was hungry. tree →
• He was crying after he fell off his bike and hurt his knee. tree →
• It is okay to cry when you feel sad. tree →
• She was crying with happiness when she won the race. tree →
• We heard someone crying for help near the river. tree →
• Onions can make your eyes water as if you were crying. tree →
• Tom stopped crying when his friend gave him a hug. tree →
• The puppy was crying at the door because it wanted to go out. tree →
• "What are you crying about, Prince?" tree →

note

Spelling: cry → cries, cried, but crying (the «y» stays before -ing). «Crying» and «weeping» are close; «sobbing» is crying hard with noisy breaths. If a friend is crying, kind things to do are to ask «Are you okay?» and to tell an adult if they are hurt. Not to be confused with «calling», although old stories use «cry» for a loud call.

In the corpora

• Crying at music, from happiness or sadness, is normal.
• It can make a noise like a crying baby, so in Chinese it is called the baby fish.
• Crying on the platform, he wonders about hiding under a seat, when a kind engine-driver says «Hullo, mother!
• Consonant + y changes to i before -ed (cried, tried) but stays before -ing (crying, trying).
• "For crying out loud" is a mild way of saying "for Christ's sake", showing annoyance.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «crying» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.