breast-beating

Ostentatious grief display

Breast-beating is exaggerated or theatrical displays of guilt, remorse, or grief—from the gesture of striking one's chest in anguish.

The term is usually critical, suggesting the emotion is performed for show rather than genuinely felt: There was much breast-beating about the budget cuts, but no one offered solutions.

Also appears as the noun breast-beater.

remorse

guilt

Moral self-reproach

contritionRemorseful state over misdeeds
self-reproachBlaming oneself for wrongdoing
regretSorrow over past actions

penitence · atonement · confession · apology · mea culpa · self-flagellation · repentance · shame · sorrow · self-blame

dramatic

theatrical

Exaggeratedly emotional for effect

ostentatiousShowily excessive
performativeDone for appearance's sake
exaggeratedMade larger than reality

public · display · spectacle · melodrama · histrionics · attention-seeking · overwrought · showy · demonstrative · grandstanding

cultural

mourning

Period following loss

griefIntense sorrow from loss
lamentationPassionate expression of grief
keeningVocal mourning for dead

funeral · ritual · wailing · sackcloth · ashes · biblical · traditional · ceremonial · grieving · bereavement

breast-beating

guilt

theatrical

mourning

breast-beating

Opposites

Categories

Family