Meaning & use
wallow in sadness
Last updated
Meaning
phraseidiomdisapproving
To spend a long time being sad and refusing to cheer up or move on.
Grammar: Used as an intransitive verb phrase: you wallow in sadness, but you do not 'wallow someone in sadness.'
Patterns
- wallow in sadness
- wallow in something
After the breakup, he wallowed in sadness for weeks instead of seeing friends.
She told her sister to stop wallowing in sadness and come for a walk.
It is normal to wallow in sadness for a while after a loss, but not forever.
Common combinations
- wallow in self-pity
- He spent the evening wallowing in self-pity instead of looking for a new job.
- wallow in misery
- They wallowed in misery for days after the team lost the final.
- stop wallowing
- Come on, stop wallowing and let's go out for coffee.
- wallow in sadness for weeks
- She wallowed in sadness for weeks before she finally asked for help.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mope
- This means to be sad and inactive, but it does not always suggest enjoying the sadness the way 'wallow' does.
- brood
- This means to keep thinking about something upsetting; it focuses on thoughts, while 'wallow in sadness' focuses on the sad feeling itself.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: wallow in sadness or wallow in mud?
wallow in sadness vs wallow in mud
The literal use means an animal rolling in mud; 'wallow in sadness' is figurative and about feelings.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses 'wallow in sadness' most naturally.
Choose one answer.
The phrase takes 'in' plus the feeling, and a time expression like 'for a month' fits naturally. The other options either miss 'in,' put it in the wrong place, or add an object that the phrase does not take.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wallow in sadness”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.