Meaning, copy and paste, related crying emojis and combos.
The 🥹 emoji shows a face with glossy, welling eyes and a quivering smile. People send it to mean they are holding back tears of joy, pride or emotion — touched, grateful, overwhelmed or fighting a happy cry over something sweet.
✍️ Written & reviewed against real usage · verified Unicode 16.0Tap to copy · pastes in WhatsApp, Instagram, anywhere
These are the real emoji characters — tap one to copy it, then paste anywhere. Because they’re text, they show up as emoji wherever you send them.
Officially Face Holding Back Tears, this emoji is the internet's go-to for that "I'm not crying, you're crying" moment. It reads as positive overwhelm far more often than sadness — reacting to a proposal, a puppy, a kind gift, a friend's win or a wholesome video. On TikTok it captions anything that gives you the warm chest-tightness of almost-tears, and in DMs it softens a message so it lands as sincere and touched rather than sad. It can also signal a brave-face "I'm fine" when someone is genuinely trying not to cry.
Something wholesome or sweet made you well up in a good way.
Reacting to a friend's win, a milestone or a heartfelt moment.
Deeply thankful for a gift, gesture or kind words.
Trying to hold it together when you're actually about to cry.
When a girl sends 🥹 she usually means she is genuinely touched or emotional in a sweet way — you said or did something that melted her, made her proud or gave her happy butterflies. It is warm and sincere, not sarcastic: think "this is so cute I could cry" rather than sadness. Paired with a heart or 🫶 it leans affectionate and grateful; on its own after something you did, it is a strong sign she is genuinely moved and letting her guard down.
Face Holding Back Tears 🥹 and Pleading Face 🥺 look closely related and get swapped constantly, but they land differently in a message. Here is what separates them, so you send the one you actually mean.
Eyes full of tears and a strained smile — you're overwhelmed or moved and about to cry.
Big puppy eyes with no tears — used to beg, plead cutely or say 'pretty please'.
It’s the same character everywhere — each platform just draws it in its own style. Here are three open emoji sets side by side, plus how your own device renders it:
| Platform | How it differs |
|---|---|
| Apple | Glossy upward-tilted eyes brimming with tears and a small strained smile — very expressive. |
| Rounder face with big watery eyes and raised inner brows; reads slightly cuter. | |
| Samsung | Shiny welling eyes with a wobbly closed smile; softer, gentler look. |
| Microsoft | Simpler shading with visible tear-filled eyes and a tense grin. |
| Follows Apple-style design — glassy eyes and quivering smile, clearly on the verge of tears. |
Apple, Samsung and WhatsApp draw their own proprietary versions, which we don’t redistribute — the notes above describe how they differ. Open sets shown under their licences: Twemoji (CC-BY 4.0), Noto Emoji (Apache 2.0), OpenMoji (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The holding back tears emoji 🥹 is not always read the way you intend it. These three situations change what 🥹 signals, and knowing them keeps you from sending the wrong message.
Quick answers to what people ask most about the holding back tears emoji 🥹 — what it means in a text, who tends to send it, and how to copy it onto your own keyboard.
It means holding back tears, usually happy or overwhelmed ones. People send it when something is touching, proud, sweet or emotional enough to almost make them cry in a good way.
Most often happy or bittersweet — it captures being moved, grateful or proud. It can express real sadness too, but the tone depends on the message around it.
It usually means she is genuinely touched or emotional in a sweet way — you said or did something that melted her. It reads as sincere and affectionate, not sarcastic.
🥹 has both eyes brimming and a quivering smile, showing you're actively fighting tears. 🥲 is a calm smile with a single tear, showing a bittersweet 'happy but a little sad' feeling.
🥹 shows tear-filled eyes and means you're welling up. 🥺 has big pleading eyes with no tears and is used to beg or look cute, like saying 'pretty please'.
Face Holding Back Tears was approved in Unicode 14.0 and released in 2021, so it may not display on older devices that haven't updated.
If 🥹 came up in a conversation, these are the emoji people most often look up next — each one explained the same way, with meanings you can actually use and characters you can copy.