fake tears
Insincere emotional display
Fake tears are tears produced deliberately rather than from genuine emotion, used to manipulate others or gain sympathy.
The phrase often carries an accusatory tone: She turned on the fake tears to get out of the speeding ticket.
Also called crocodile tears, from the old belief that crocodiles weep while devouring prey.
- sobbingConvulsive crying aloud
- manipulationUnderhanded control of others
- dramaticStrikingly expressive or sudden
- weepingShedding tears audibly
- dry eyesLacking natural moisture
turn on the waterworks · acting · sympathy · pretend · insincere · theatrical · guilt trip · melodrama · performance · phony · contrived · sniffling · attention-seeking · waterworks · deception · forced · hollow · pity
- melodramatichistrionic, theatrical, overwrought, exaggerated, dramatic
- theatricstheatrics, dramatics, melodrama, histrionics, theatricality