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Webster 1913 Edition


Lachrymatory

Lach′ry-ma-to-ry

,
Noun.
;
pl. -
ries
(#)
.
[Cf. F.
lacrymatoire
.]
(Antiq.)
A “tear-bottle;” a narrow-necked vessel found in sepulchers of the ancient Romans; – so called from a former notion that the tears of the deceased person’s friends were collected in it. Called also
lachrymal
or
lacrymal
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Lachrymatory

LACH'RYMATORY

,
Noun.
A vessel found in sepulchers of the ancients, in which it has been supposed the tears of a deceased person's friends were collected and preserved with the ashes and urn. It was a small glass or bottle like a phial.

Definition 2024


lachrymatory

lachrymatory

English

Adjective

lachrymatory (comparative more lachrymatory, superlative most lachrymatory)

  1. Pertaining to or causing tears.
    • 1919: It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment of a bursting shell and to boggle at making his eyes water by means of lachrymatory gas. — Winston Churchill, "1919 War Office Memorandum"

Translations

Noun

lachrymatory (plural lachrymatories)

  1. (archaeology) A vase intended to hold tears, formerly used by archaeologists to designate certain urns found in Roman burials.
    • 1658: For beside these Lachrymatories, notable Lamps with Vessels of Oyles and Aromaticall Liquors attended noble Ossuaries. — Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial (Penguin 2005, p. 21)

Synonyms

Translations