lachrymatory, a. and n.
(ˈlækrɪmətərɪ)
[ad. L. type *lacrimātōrius, f. lacrimāre: see lachrymation.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to tears; tending to cause a flow of tears. Of a vase: Intended to contain tears.
| a 1849 Poe Loss of Breath Wks. 1864 IV. 303 A thousand vague and lachrymatory fancies took possession of my soul. 1851 Hawthorne Twice-t. Tales II. xiii. 210 Drinking out of..a lachrymatory vase, or sepulchral urn. 1873 Herschel Pop. Lect. vii. §3. 328 The presence in the lacrymatory secretion of extremely minute globular particles of equal size. 1916 Yorks. Post 21 July 5/5 A violent artillery preparation with asphyxiating and lachrymatory shells. 1935 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 20 July 133/1 Lachrymatory gases were here and off again unless there was a continual rain of tear-gas shells. 1971 Agric. & Biol. Chem. (Tokyo) XXXV. 1831 The lachrymatory character and the pungent flavor [of onions] had been decreased by γ-irradiation. |
B. n.
1. A vase intended to hold tears; applied by archæologists, with doubtful correctness, to those small phials of glass, alabaster, etc., which are found in ancient Roman tombs.
| 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. 23 No..Lachrymatories, or Tear-Bottles attended these rural Urnes. a 1711 Ken Hymnoth. Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 72 Magdalen's Tears..her Lachrymatory daily fill'd. 1807 G. Chalmers Caledonia I. i. iv. 147 There have been dug up here..a Roman lachrymatory, and also a pig of lead. 1842 Carlyle in Mem. Tennyson (1897) I. 214 There is in me what would fill whole Lachrymatories, as I read. |
2. humorously. A pocket-handkerchief.
| 1825 New Monthly Mag. XIII. 208 Women will be stationed in the pit with white cambric lachrymatories, to exchange for those which have become saturated with the tender tears of sympathy. 1844 Fraser's Mag. XXX. 331/1 Our lachrymals were unhumected, our lachrymatories never called into requisition. |