Tear Handkerchief (The).
A handkerchief blessed by the priest and given, in the Tyrol, to a bride, to dry her tears. At death, this handkerchief is laid in her coffin over the face of the deceased.
· 
· 
Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.