sob story

sob sto·ry

S s

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [sob stawr-ee, stohr-ee]
- /sɒb ˈstɔr i, ˈstoʊr i/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [sob stawr-ee, stohr-ee]
- /sɒb ˈstɔr i, ˈstoʊr i/

Definitions of sob story words

noun sob story an excessively sentimental human-interest story. 1
noun sob story an alibi or excuse, especially one designed to arouse sympathy: Instead of a raise, the boss gave us another sob story about her expenses. 1
noun sob story tale or account meant to evoke pity 1
countable noun sob story You describe what someone tells you about their own or someone else's difficulties as a sob story when you think that they have told you about it in order to get your sympathy. 0
noun sob story a tale of personal distress intended to arouse sympathy, esp one offered as an excuse or apology 0
noun sob story a very sad story, esp. an account of personal troubles that is meant to arouse sympathy 0

See all 6 definitions of sob story

Information block about the term

Origin of sob story

First appearance:

before 1915

One of the 14% newest English words

First recorded in 1915-20

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Sob story

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Sob story

sob story popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 44% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

This word is included in each student's vocabulary. Most likely there is at least one movie with this word in the title.

sob story usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for sob story

adj sob story

cast down — If someone is cast down by something, they are sad or worried because of it.
depressed — If you are depressed, you are sad and feel that you cannot enjoy anything, because your situation is so difficult and unpleasant.
down and out — downward; going or directed downward: the down escalator.
down in the dumps — If you are down in the dumps, you are feeling very depressed and miserable.
in the dumps — a depressed state of mind (usually preceded by in the): to be in the dumps over money problems.

All 9 Synonyms of sob story