sobbing

Pluralsobbings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of sob.

   Sobbing quietly, she pressed her face into the pillow.

   He was still sobbing when the nurse arrived.

   Note

   The -ing form doubles the final b, as short verbs ending in a single consonant do: sob, sobbing. With be it marks weeping in progress (she was sobbing), and it can also carry the transitive use of saying something through tears (sobbing her thanks). The same spelling serves as the noun for the act and the adjective for a person who weeps.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of crying or weeping, especially the catching, gasping sounds made by a person who sobs.

   The funeral was punctuated by sobbing from the front pews.

   Exhaustion finally brought an end to the child's sobbing.

   Similarcrying, sobs

   Note

   Usually a mass noun, naming weeping as a sound that fills a space: there was sobbing in the next room. It can be counted, and the plural sobbings exists, but sobs more often does that work when separate bursts of crying are meant. Choose sobbing for the continuous sound and sobs for the individual gasps.

3. 3
   adjective

   Weeping; making the catching, gasping sounds characteristic of a person who sobs.

   The sobbing mourners gathered quietly around the grave.

   He tried to comfort the sobbing child on the crowded platform.

   Similarcrying

   Note

   An adjective that does not grade. A child is sobbing or is not, and nobody is "more sobbing" than another. John Evelyn's Sylva (1664) advises scraping moss off trees "after a sobbing Rain." There the word sits closer to sob's other meaning, "to soak," describing drenching rain rather than tears. Modern use attaches it to people.

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