Sobbing

How to spell sobbing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sobbing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sobbing mean?

1. verbWeeping with convulsive, gasping breaths.
2. nounThe act or sound of weeping with convulsive breaths.

Sobbing in a sentence

• verb

  She sat at the kitchen table sobbing over the lost letter.

• noun

  The muffled sobbing from the next room kept everyone awake.

• verb

  He was still sobbing when the film credits rolled.

• noun

  After an hour of sobbing she finally calmed down.

Where does sobbing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base verb 'sob' goes back to Middle English 'sobben', meaning to catch the breath in grief or to weep convulsively. Its ultimate origin is almost certainly imitative, echoing the sharp, gasping intake of breath that comes with hard crying, and it has likely Germanic relatives such as the Dutch 'sabben'. The word has carried the same physical, gulping sense of weeping since at least the 1300s. When 'sob' takes the '-ing' ending, the single short vowel rule kicks in and the final consonant doubles, giving 'sobbing'; this doubling is exactly the spot writers stumble, since it is easy to leave only one 'b'. The same doubling logic governs 'robbing', 'nabbing', and 'jabbing'.

How the word is built

• sob (to weep with convulsive gasps)
• -b- (doubled consonant after a short stressed vowel)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)