13th century, in the sense defined in the intransitive sense 1a, Break my heart, or stifle my hated breath with sobs; Do your own work, don`t admit someone else`s death. Dryden. Sobbing, V.I. sighing convulsively, with tears: crying with a convulsive beginning of breathing, due to contractions of the diaphragm, accompanied by a closure of the glottis that prevents the entry of air into the lungs. sob; Pa.T. and Pa.P. sobbed.—n. a short, convulsive sigh, a similar sound.—n. Sob′bing.—adv. Sobingly. (Conn. with A.S.

seófian, sigh.) She sighed, sobbed and was angry in despair, she tore her clothes and tore her hair. Dryden. Sobben; Similar to Middle Low German drool Often the sounds of infant misfortune, short, thick sobs, loud cries and shrill cries are heard. Jonathan Swift. The tree, which sobs and is wet, swells. John Mortimer. As if her life and death rested on her word: she shed a few tears, mingled with sighs and sobs, as if her hopes had died by her delay. Edward Fairfax. He sobs in the clearings, gently opening the golden day. James Thomson. A convulsive sigh; A convulsive act of breathing hampered by grief. insulting greeting for stupid, irritating or ridiculous people, sighing with a sudden chest lift or with some kind of convulsive movement; sighed with tears and convulsive breathing When your warrior father told the sad story of my father`s death as a child, he stopped twenty times to sob and cry.

William Shakespeare. Asshole, bastard, dick sucker, stubborn, shit, mother fuck, motherfucker, sting, whore, son of a bitch, SOBnomen the act of sobbing; A convulsive sigh or breath inspiration, as in the etymology of mourning: Seob, Gead, plaintive, Saxon. Perhaps it is a simple enomatotopoeia copied by sound. Hunt audibly with convulsive grief; to sigh in spasm. If children do not have the power to fulfill their desire, they will maintain their right to it by shouting and sobbing. John Locke, on education. A miraculous bag with both hands binds her: she gathers the power of the female lungs, the sighs, the sobs and passions and the war of languages. Alexander Pope.