Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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name
The route followed by American Indians moved from their homelands in the southeastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi river by the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: historical
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A forced removal of American Indian or First Nation peoples, or other alleged injustice against them, like the original Trail of Tears.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
First originated from a Choctaw chief who described the displacement, quoted in the Arkansas Gazette as a "trail of tears and death". Later popularised in reference to the Cherokees, where it is called ᏅᏃᎯ ᏚᎾᏠᏱᎸᎢ (nvnohi dunatloyilvi, literally “the trail where they cried”) in the Cherokee language.
Across languages
9 source translations are retained for this English entry.
