crybaby

See also: cry-baby and cry baby

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From cry +‎ baby.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkɹaɪˌbeɪbi/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

crybaby (plural crybabies)

  1. A baby who cries excessively.
    • 2017 September 4, Natalie Angier, “A Baby Wails, and the Adult World Comes Running”, in The New York Times‎[1]:
      A notorious human crybaby, according to her older siblings, parents and the building superintendent, will cry for two hours every two hours, refusing to acknowledge any distinction between crying and other basic infant activities, like “being awake” or “breathing.”
  2. (slang, derogatory) Someone whose feelings are very easily hurt, often by trivial matters.
    • 2023 February 10, Graeme Wood, “DEI Is an Ideological Test”, in The Atlantic‎[2]:
      Then he used the occasion to humiliate the provost, calling her an example of the censorious crybabies whom he had come to relieve of their responsibility.
  3. (slang, derogatory) Someone who takes offense or excessively complains when things are not going well.
    • 1964, Harry S. Truman, 4:20 from the start, in MP2002-359 Former President Truman Discusses Using the Atomic Bomb to Stop the War‎[3], Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162:
      […] Now there are a lot of crybabies around who are talking about what ought to have done and the bomb ought to have had a demonstration in Japan before you killed all those people. […] I don't care what the crybabies say now because they didn't have to make the decision.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Verb

crybaby (third-person singular simple present crybabies, present participle crybabying, simple past and past participle crybabied)

  1. (intransitive) To act like a crybaby.
    • 1995 June 15, Scott Ostler, “SCOTT OSTLER -- Hakeem Sets Old Standard”, in San Francisco Chronicle‎[4]:
      Out: Trash talk, dirty play, crybabying, showboating and players who can't be bothered to show up for games or keep their shoes on.
    • 2023 October 27, John Nolte, “Nolte: 'Hunger Games' Actress Rachel Zeigler Plays the Victim over 'Snow White' Backlash”, in Breitbart‎[5]:
      “I have learned the hard way,” she crybabied this week, “that we have to be fearless and loud in order to be heard, and to prepare for the backlash that occasionally comes with that outspokenness.”
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