crocodile tear

From the ancient belief that crocodiles shed tears while consuming their prey.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɒkədaɪl ˌtɪə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɑkədaɪl ˌtɪɹ/

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crocodile tear (plural crocodile tears)

1. (idiomatic) A tear shed insincerely, in a false display of sorrow or some other emotion.
   • 1877, Charles Reade, chapter 2, in The Woman Hater:

     At last he contrived to squeeze out one of his little hysterical tears, and drop it on her hand. Now, the girl was not butter, like some of her sex; far from it: but neither was she wood—indeed, she was not old enough for that—so this crocodile tear won her for the time being.

2. (idiomatic, in the plural) A display of tears that is forced or false.
   • 1864, Anthony Trollope, chapter 19, in Can You Forgive Her?:

     And in all her letters since, she had spoken of her aunt as a silly, vain, worldly woman, weeping crocodile tears, for an old husband whose death had released her from the tedium of his company.

• insincerity
• hypocrisy