breast-beating: Meaning and Definition of

breast-beat•ing

Pronunciation: (brest'bē"ting), [key]
— n.
  1. a loud and demonstrative display of grief, remorse, or the like: The authorities indulged in a great deal of breast-beating about traffic accidents but failed to pass new driving laws.
—adj.
  1. characterized by or involving breast-beating.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.