Meaning of 'Cry me a river'

[Daemon99]

There's a song called "Cry me a river" by Justin Timberlake.

Can someone please tell me what it means?
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Non-native speaker of English
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I intend to live forever - so far, so good.

[Alan]

Hi,

Simply put, it suggests you cry buckets and buckets and buckets - enough to fill a river. As you can see in this verse:

Now you say you're lonely, you cry the whole night through;
Well you can cry me a river, cry me a river,
I cried a river over you.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
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[Skrej]

Often, the phrase is used in a sarcastic sense also. When somebody starts complaining about something, and I'm for some reason particularly unsympathetic, I might (and have!) say, "Oh, cry me a river, why don't you?"
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[Ralf]

Hi yas,

I associate the line 'cry me a river' with a little girl-like/gay-like winging, but there's also this truly touching and magnificent jazz version by Diana Krall!
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