Wiktionary
n. (context idiomatic English) Someone offering emotional support to another in distress
Usage examples of "shoulder to cry on".
She also suggested that if I lent Mom a shoulder to cry on instead of always telling her to get on with her life, I'd be a lot more help to her.
Ross had stayed around to give Vanessa a hand, and a shoulder to cry on.
This book can't give you individual attention or a hug or a shoulder to cry on, in times of stress.
Back when she was a kid, when her world fell apart and she needed a shoulder to cry on, she'd gone to her brother Ethan.
She had tried everything to comfort him, had held him while he thrashed in his dreams, had offered him her words of comfort and her shoulder to cry on.
But late one Saturday night, stuck in the stop-and-go on Sunset after a wrenching evening with the parents of a mercilessly deformed newborn baby, I found myself wanting a shoulder to cry on.
He had saved her life, offered her solace and a shoulder to cry on, made her feel safe when she'd been frightened.
It is the first responsibility of a friend to provide a shoulder to cry on.