a. [ad. L. lacrimōs-us, f. lacrima tear.]
† 1. Having the nature of tears; liable to exude in drops. Obs.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 264. As for wax, its begotten of the lachrymose and gummose parts of plants.
b. Bot. Bearing tear-like bodies.
1871. M. C. Cooke, Handbk. Brit. Fungi, I. 113. Agaricus (Hebeloma) fastibilis,… gills broad, edges often lachrymose.
2. Given or ready to shed tears. Of the eyes: Suffused with tears.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Lacrymose, full of Tears, sorrowful.
1812. Examiner, 23 Nov., 737/1. What [is there] in my Lord Eldon but a lachrymose impotence?
1815. T. L. Peacock, Nightmare Abbey (1817), 94. A very lachrymose and morbid gentleman of some note in the literary world.
1858. Thackeray, Virgin., lxix. (1878), 565. The eyes that were looking so gentle and lachrymose but now, flame with sudden wrath.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 383. Disease of this nature is sometimes attended with lachrymose depression.
b. Of a tearful character; calculated to provoke tears; mournful.
1822. [Mary A. Kelty], Osmond, I. 89. I want something now in the way of sentiment; tender, lachrymose.
1858. Sat. Rev., VI. 331/2. Lachrymose doggrel.
1884. Manch. Examiner, 1 Nov., 5/1. Mr. Maciver dealt with the subject in a lachrymose and declamatory fashion.
Hence Lachrymosely adv.; Lachrymosity, the quality or condition of being lachrymose.
1834. Campbell, Life Mrs. Siddons, II. xiii. 391. As I cannot bear to think of her gloomily, I have not written her life lachrymosely.
1839. Lady Lytton, Cheveley (ed. 2), I. i. 3. Those gentlemen who write the most liberally and lachrymosely about the errors of female education.
1880. ‘Vernon Lee,’ 18th C. in Italy, vi. 270. The dullness, the vulgarity, the falseness, the lachrymosity of the Sposa Persiana.
