tearful

/ˈtɪərfəl/

/ˈtɪəfəl/

Before you break out in a full-fledged cry — when you're wiping your eyes and blowing your nose, you're tearful.

If a person is tearful, he or she is full of tears. Most of them haven't flowed, but you can see them in someone's eyes. If you break out in a full-fledged cry, you're no longer tearful, you're weeping. If something is tearful, there are lots of tears involved. Think about the last time you said a tearful goodbye to a good friend, gave your sister a tearful hug, or witnessed a victim's tearful plea for mercy.

Definitions of tearful

1. adjective

   filled with or marked by tears
   “tearful eyes”

   “tearful entreaties”

   synonyms:

   liquid, swimming

   filled or brimming with tears

   misty-eyed

   having eyes blurred as with tears

   teary, teary-eyed, watery-eyed

   with eyes full of tears

   sniffly, snuffling, snuffly

   liable to sniffle

   weepy

   liable to weep easily

   antonyms:

   tearless

   free from tears

   dry

   not shedding tears
2. adjective

   showing sorrow
   synonyms: dolorous, dolourous, lachrymose, weeping

   sorrowful

   experiencing or marked by or expressing sorrow especially that associated with irreparable loss