English

Noun

cryfest ‎(plural cryfests)

1. (informal) Something sad or moving, especially a film.
   • 1999, Thomas Doherty, Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934, Columbia University Press (1999), ISBN 0231110944, page 130:

     The Sin of Madelon Claudet was another hugely successful exemplar of the crime-and-punishment cryfests that shopgirls and housewives took to heart.

   • 2002, Dave Gathman, "Movie Review", The Beacon News (Aurora, Illinois), 26 May 2002:

     But if heartfelt, sensitive, talky, emotional cryfests have become scarce at the multiplex, we also have seen the rise of the He-Woman, the battling babe who can tote that gun and sling that punch and close that business deal.

   • 2002, Tom Mallon, Rabbit Songs review, CMJ New Music Monthly, July 2002, page 42:

     Main songwriter and pianist Dan Messe makes each song a regret-soaked cryfest, […]

2. (informal) An episode of intense crying.
   • 1997, Anne Voelckers Palumbo, The Stay-At-Home Mom's Survival Guide, White-Boucke Publishing, ISBN 9781888580051, page 7:

     Knowing that I had but seconds left before my kid exploded into a full-blown cryfest and knowing that I absolutely had to have an article of clothing that could camouflage baby barf, I raced to the register with my sapling tucked under my arm.

   • 2010, Gregg Olsen, A Twisted Faith: A Minister's Obsession and the Murder That Destroyed a Church, St. Martin's Press (2010), ISBN 9781429928984, page 234:

     Tears were a part of who he was. But this wasn't the usual cryfest. It was a deluge.

   • 2011, Jennifer Ziegler, Sass & Serendipity, Ember (2011), ISBN 9780375859649, pages 65-66:

     Her eyes were raw and crusted from her big cryfest the day before, which had lasted late into the evening.

Synonyms

• (something sad or moving): sobfest, tearjerker
• (intense crying episode): sobfest