sob story

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

sob story (plural sob stories)

1. (idiomatic, chiefly derogatory) A sad story, especially one intended to elicit sympathy.
   • 1922, Upton Sinclair, chapter 14, in They call Me Carpenter:

     "Dis picture is called De Tale o' Two Cities, and it's de French revolution. It's about a feller vot takes anodder feller's place and gits his head cut off; and say, dere's a sob story in it vot's a vunder."

   • 2006, Keith Donohue, The Stolen Child‎^[1], →ISBN, page 56:

     Mr. Martin objected at first to the bastardization of my talent, but I gave him a sob story about needing money for lessons.

Translations

sad story

• Dutch: smartlap (nl), tranentrekker (nl)
• Finnish: nyyhkytarina (fi)
• French: histoire à faire pleurer dans les chaumières f, histoire larmoyante f
• German: Schnulze (de) f, Schmachtfetzen (de) m
• Polish: łzawa historyjka f
• Romanian: poveste lacrimogenă f
• Swedish: snyfthistoria (sv), snyftare (sv)

See also

• tale of woe
• tearjerker