What's the difference between cry and wail?

Cry


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To make a loud call or cry; to call or exclaim vehemently or earnestly; to shout; to vociferate; to proclaim; to pray; to implore.
  • (v. i.) To utter lamentations; to lament audibly; to express pain, grief, or distress, by weeping and sobbing; to shed tears; to bawl, as a child.
  • (v. i.) To utter inarticulate sounds, as animals.
  • (v. t.) To utter loudly; to call out; to shout; to sound abroad; to declare publicly.
  • (v. t.) To cause to do something, or bring to some state, by crying or weeping; as, to cry one's self to sleep.
  • (v. t.) To make oral and public proclamation of; to declare publicly; to notify or advertise by outcry, especially things lost or found, goods to be sold, ets.; as, to cry goods, etc.
  • (v. t.) to publish the banns of, as for marriage.
  • (v. i.) A loud utterance; especially, the inarticulate sound produced by one of the lower animals; as, the cry of hounds; the cry of wolves.
  • (v. i.) Outcry; clamor; tumult; popular demand.
  • (v. i.) Any expression of grief, distress, etc., accompanied with tears or sobs; a loud sound, uttered in lamentation.
  • (v. i.) Loud expression of triumph or wonder or of popular acclamation or favor.
  • (v. i.) Importunate supplication.
  • (v. i.) Public advertisement by outcry; proclamation, as by hawkers of their wares.
  • (v. i.) Common report; fame.
  • (v. i.) A word or phrase caught up by a party or faction and repeated for effect; as, the party cry of the Tories.
  • (v. i.) A pack of hounds.
  • (v. i.) A pack or company of persons; -- in contempt.
  • (v. i.) The crackling noise made by block tin when it is bent back and forth.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But not only did it post a larger loss than expected, Amazon also projected 7% to 18% revenue growth over the busiest shopping period of the year, a far cry from the 20%-plus pace that had convinced investors to overlook its persistent lack of profit in the past.
  • (2) Are you ready to vote?” is the battle cry, and even the most superficial of glances at the statistics tells why.
  • (3) A series of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed the effects of Surgency, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect on evoking upset in spouses through condescension (e.g., treating spouse as stupid or inferior), possessiveness (demanding too much time and attention), abuse (slapping spouse), unfaithfulness (having sex with others), inconsiderateness (leaving toilet seat up), moodiness (crying a lot), alcohol abuse (drinking too much alcohol), emotional constriction (hiding emotions to act tough), and self-centeredness (acting selfishly).
  • (4) When we gave her a gift of a few books in English, she burst out crying.
  • (5) Postoperatively, an independent observer assessed conscious level, crying, posture and facial expression using a simple numerical scoring system, and also recorded heart and respiratory rates over a 2-h period.
  • (6) Antibodies with the CRI can be isolated by isoelectric focusing from selected mice that have produced a high concentration of the CRI.
  • (7) My mother told me not to cry.” He has since witnessed the transformation of Hagere Selam.
  • (8) Three infants reached pulse pressure values less than 1% of control when cries were sustained for nine cardiac cycles.
  • (9) One is to shoot them in the head and cry about the bloody aftermath.
  • (10) When the CTL nonresponder adult mice received CRI producer B lymphocytes, the nonresponder phenotype was not changed into the responder phenotype.
  • (11) At one point, shortly after Suárez had given them a 3-0 lead, a loud cry had gone up from the Liverpool end of "We're going to win the league".
  • (12) He made me laugh and cry, and his courage in writing about what he was going through was sometimes quite overwhelming.
  • (13) Insecure infant attachment at 16 months was associated with maternal perception of overcontrol, depressed mood state, and aversive conditioning to the impending cry in the laboratory task at the 5-month period.
  • (14) A week after the New York Film Critics Circle gave the movie its top award, a liberal political commentator wrote: "I'm betting that Dick Cheney will love [the film, which is] a far, far cry from the rousing piece of pro-Obama propaganda that some conservatives feared it would be."
  • (15) He'd thought: I can't ring, 'cos Harry's probably crying, and I can't quite deal with him crying on the phone."
  • (16) Studies of the stability of P1 plasmid in a P1 cry Escherichia coli lysogen have suggested a model for equipartition of plasmid copies.
  • (17) Kester said her daughter came and cried in her lap.
  • (18) With the Tories enjoying a persistent lead in the polls, the prime minister launched Labour's "Blair-plus" manifesto with a rallying cry to the party.
  • (19) Photograph: Peter Beaumont for the Guardian For his part the leader of Hadash, the veteran socialist party in Israel that emphasises Arab-Jewish cooperation, Odeh has now attracted a political star status most obvious on the stump in Lod on Wednesday in the repeated cries of “Ayman!” by shopkeepers and passersby keen to shake his hand or be photographed with him.
  • (20) Once I’d checked she was OK I said, ‘Stop crying now.’ ” So it’s about managing emotions: ‘I’m going to need you to get a grip.’” “If you’ve got interesting points to make about the devaluing of serious words like bullying and depression, why make them in a way that sounds like you’re ridiculing people who are suffering?” I ask.

Wail


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To choose; to select.
  • (v. t.) To lament; to bewail; to grieve over; as, to wail one's death.
  • (v. i.) To express sorrow audibly; to make mournful outcry; to weep.
  • (n.) Loud weeping; violent lamentation; wailing.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) You couldn't get much more bohemian than the music playing in this room of tiny round tables, first French crooner Serge Gainsbourg and then cabaret freak Scott Walker wailing of their obelisk-size pain.
  • (2) Every now and then some rich Oga or Madam comes along in their bulletproof cars and wailing sirens, and distorts the delicate equilibrium of this body of traffic.
  • (3) In groups 1 and 2, clusters of cylindrical tubules, typical of the male gland, decreased in number and disappeared almost completely 2 wailed in these two groups throughout the remaining period of experiment.
  • (4) "Barcelona's habit of playing midfielders in defence will do them more harm than good," he wails.
  • (5) "Gnnmph, I can't 'ave it 'ere, I 'aven't 'ad my enema," wails a labouring housewife, straining fruitlessly on a communal tenement bog as horrified neighbours look on in their rollers.
  • (6) There were moments when music seemed to struggle to be heard over the tocking of iPod clickwheels and the wailing of record company executives.
  • (7) The army cleared itself of responsibility for the killing of a Palestinian family on a Gaza beach three weeks ago during an artillery barrage after many Israelis were shaken by television pictures of a traumatised child wailing over the body of her father.
  • (8) While Arsenal fans have spent the last nine years gnashing and wailing, Hull supporters have cheered the incredible resurrection of their club, as David Conn explains here .
  • (9) Some family members, after years of begging for mercy and receiving none, broke down and wailed.
  • (10) The big story Once upon a time the Oscar ceremony was a comforting drone punctuated only by the odd song-and-dance routine and the banshee wailing of overwhelmed best actress award winners.
  • (11) Elsewhere on the carpet Quentin Tarantino is having a bop with Uma Thurman (again), Xavier Dolan is wearing an outrageous tux (again) and the boring normal people at the barriers are wailing for stars' attention (again).
  • (12) Later that night, Lola wailed in the street as the police prised her baby from her arms and led her into custody.
  • (13) Family members who had gathered at a hotel in Beijing wailed as they heard the news.
  • (14) Naderi offered his prayers to Dhu’s family at the end of his evidence, saying: “I wish I was able to pick up any abnormal signs that may have made a difference.” Carol Roe ran crying from the courtroom, her wail flowing back through the door to where Naderi was seated in the witness box.
  • (15) Sorrowful wails and sobs resounded as thousands of Rwandans packed the country's main sports stadium to mark the 20th anniversary of the beginning of a devastating 100-day genocide.
  • (16) Sandy breaking out of the compound BB3 Sandy's insistence on his quirkiness got rather wearing, so it was just as well he made a bid for escape, with his new best friend Alex wailing, "Be careful, Sandy, be careful!"
  • (17) Starbucks admitted that while it can (quite incredibly) claim that its 700 UK stores are not profitable, through wails of what seemed like crocodile tears, its 30 coffee traders in Switzerland make an enormous 20% profit margin despite never seeing a coffee bean; a fact that the committee could not have helped noting might be related to the 12% tax it pays in that state.
  • (18) Their players are distraught and making a mess of everything, while the TV producer here is having an absolute ball picking out wailing Brazilians in the crowd.
  • (19) Another shows a scene of villagers wailing with grief: “Villagers grieve as their friend is put into the ambulance,” the voiceover says.
  • (20) Among those who finally decided that Kobani was on the brink was Mukdad Bozan, travelling with his wife, a wailing baby and three bedraggled older children.

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