CROCODILE TEARS • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Crocodile tears

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/krˈɑkədˌaɪl tɛrz/ Listen

noun

Crocodile n.

(Zool.) A large reptile of the genus Crocodilus, of several species. They grow to the length of sixteen or eighteen feet, and inhabit the large rivers of Africa, Asia, and America. The eggs, laid in the sand, are hatched by the sun's heat. The best known species is that of the Nile (Crocodilus vulgaris, or Crocodilus Niloticus). The Florida crocodile (Crocodilus Americanus) is much less common than the alligator and has longer jaws. The name is also sometimes applied to the species of other related genera, as the gavial and the alligator.

(Logic) A fallacious dilemma, mythically supposed to have been first used by a crocodile.

Crocodile bird (Zool.), an African plover (Pluvianus aegypticus) which alights upon the crocodile and devours its insect parasites, even entering its open mouth (according to reliable writers) in pursuit of files, etc.; called also Nile bird. It is the trochilos of ancient writers.

Crocodile tears, false or affected tears; hypocritical sorrow; derived from the fiction of old travelers, that crocodiles shed tears over their prey.

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Etymology of 'Crocodile tears'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Crocodile tears" Quotes from Famous Books

... people! You knew the little runt couldn't keep his hands off—you knew he'd be so darned righteous he'd make all the trouble he could for other people, because he hasn't got nerve enough to do anything wrong himself. You couldn't keep it to yourself, for all your promises and your crocodile tears! I ought to have known better than trust you with anything. But I'll tell you one thing more, you two nasty nice creatures that are worse than scrawling snakes—I'll tell you this: It won't do you one particle of good to set the police after Jack. So go ahead and tell, and be just as ...

— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower