Crocodile tears: (Noun) tears that you cry when you are not really sad or sorry (1)
These days we have a baby running around our house (more like running the show), and he naturally demands all the heaps of attention one can lavish upon him. As such, the prince has grown accustomed to getting his way. And man, when he doesn’t get what he wants he can let loose with an ear-splitting howl that’s audible from the moon! Then, right on cue, here come those big ‘ole crocodile tears. Poor baby! So where did that term, “crocodile tears”, come from anyway?
Modern English speakers use the phrase “crocodile tears” to describe a display of superficial or false sorrow, but the saying actually derives from a medieval belief that crocodiles shed tears of sadness while they killed and consumed their prey. The myth dates back as far as the 14th century and comes from a book called “The Travels of Sir John Mandeville.” Wildly popular upon its release, the tome recounts a brave knight’s adventures during his supposed travels through Asia. Among its many fabrications, the book includes a description of crocodiles that notes, “These serpents sley men, and eate them weeping, and they have no tongue.” While factually inaccurate, Mandeville’s account of weeping reptiles later found its way into the works of Shakespeare, and “crocodile tears” became an idiom as early as the 16th century. (2)
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Sources:
(1) https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/crocodile-tears
(2) https://www.history.com/news/10-common-sayings-with-historical-origins