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cry the blues. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
cry the blues, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
cry the blues in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Pronunciation
Verb
cry the blues (third-person singular simple present cries the blues, present participle crying the blues, simple past and past participle cried the blues)
- (music) To sing in the style of blues music.
1958 September 1, “Best of the Blues”, in Time:"Young people have forgotten how to cry the blues," said Big Bill Broonzy as he lay dying in a dark room above the littered streets of Chicago's Negro South Side.
- (idiomatic, by extension) To complain, especially in order to obtain sympathy for one's own purportedly sad situation.
1934 October 3, “Slang Declared Barometer Of Nation's State Of Mind”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, retrieved 20 Nov. 2008, page 15:"The average citizen gets an extreme emotional delight in ‘crying the blues’ to anyone who might lend an attentive ear."
2006 July 9, Ben Stein, “Everybody's Business”, in New York Times, retrieved 20 Nov. 2008:We have immense corporations that cry the blues all day long about how their pension costs are ruining them.
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