Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun idiomatic A symbolic "valley of tears"; meaning the world and the sorrows felt through life. Similar to the Old Testament Psalm 23's reference to the "valley of the shadow of death", the phrase implies that sadness is part of the physical world (i.e. part of human experience).

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From vale a Middle English word meaning a valley or a dale.

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