a. [f. TEAR sb.1 + -FUL.]
1. Full of tears; weeping; lachrymose.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. (1598), 372. My Pyrocles said she (with tearefull eyes and pittifull countenance).
1597. J. Payne, Royal Exch., 28. Sory and fearefull, yea penitent and tearefull.
1726. Pope, Odyss., XXI. 233. With tear full eyes o’er all their master gaz’d.
1855. Ht. Martineau, Autobiog., ii. (1877), 30. The old folks and their daughters came out to meet us, all tearful and agitated.
1884. Mem. Pr. Alice, 16. The parting was tearful, but full of hope.
2. Causing tears; mournful, melancholy. ? Obs.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XIX. 315. Then the warre, was tearefull to our foe, But now to me.
Hence Tearfully adv., in a tearful manner, with tears; Tearfulness, the state of being tearful.
1820. L. Hunt, Indicator, No. 37 (1822), I. 296. A breathing tearfulness.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, I. i. Anxiously and tearfully he looked … up the steep ascent of the Aventine.
1863. Monsell, Hymn, ‘O worship the Lord,’ iv. Mornings of joy … for evenings of tearfulness.
