CROCODILE TEARS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Crocodile tears

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/krˈɑkədˌaɪl tɛrz/ Listen

noun

Crocodile n.

(Zool.) A large reptile of the genus Crocodilus, of several species. They grow to the length of sixteen or eighteen feet, and inhabit the large rivers of Africa, Asia, and America. The eggs, laid in the sand, are hatched by the sun's heat. The best known species is that of the Nile (Crocodilus vulgaris, or Crocodilus Niloticus). The Florida crocodile (Crocodilus Americanus) is much less common than the alligator and has longer jaws. The name is also sometimes applied to the species of other related genera, as the gavial and the alligator.

(Logic) A fallacious dilemma, mythically supposed to have been first used by a crocodile.

Crocodile bird (Zool.), an African plover (Pluvianus aegypticus) which alights upon the crocodile and devours its insect parasites, even entering its open mouth (according to reliable writers) in pursuit of files, etc.; called also Nile bird. It is the trochilos of ancient writers.

Crocodile tears, false or affected tears; hypocritical sorrow; derived from the fiction of old travelers, that crocodiles shed tears over their prey.

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Etymology of 'Crocodile tears'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Crocodile tears" Quotes from Famous Books

... very sweet to Webb, while tender-hearted Johnnie was exceedingly remorseful, and wished to know whether "the bunnies, if put by the fire, would not come to life before morning." Indeed, there was a general chorus of commiseration, which Burt brought to a prosaic conclusion by saying: "Crocodile tears, every one. You'll all enjoy the pot-pie to-morrow with great gusto. By the way, I'll prop up one of these little fellows at the foot of Ned's crib, and in the morning he'll think that the original 'Br'er Rabbit' has hopped out of Uncle Remus's ...

— Nature's Serial Story • E. P. Roe

... I confessed, "in the sense that they certainly were not crocodile tears; but I am somewhat at a loss to explain them from a sensible, American standpoint. Of course my Jacobitism is purely impersonal, though scarcely more so than yours, at this late day; at least it is merely a poetic sentiment, for which Caroline, Baroness Nairne, is mainly ...

— Penelope's Experiences in Scotland • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... they have no valid claim, have not sought their remedy. Relying upon empty (because false) denunciation, they have made it a point of honor to show what can be shown by judicial investigation; i. e., that there being no debt, there has been no default. The crocodile tears which have been shed over ruined creditors, are on a par with the baseless denunciations which have been heaped upon the State. Those bonds were purchased by a bank then tottering to its fall—purchased in violation of the charter of the bank, or fraudulently, ...

— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 2, August, 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various