Giving free rein to one's grief.

In the first passage from Augustine, the phrase dimisi habenas lacrimis (l. 9) gave everyone some trouble, so I thought I'd clarify it here rather than ten times in writing.

As I said in my note, you really need to consider both the verb and its object together. Dimitto can mean a lot of things, but its basic senses are "to send forth" and "to send away, let go" (Cassell's, s.v., 1 and 2). Habena means "that by which anything is held",
           
              Hence (1) a strap; of a sling ...; (2) a bridle, reins (gen. in pl.). Lit., habenas fundere,
              dare, to give the rein, loosen the rein,... (Cassell's, s.v.)

So how does one put together the two words? You could notice the "habenas fundere, dare" and see that dimitto is a rough synonym for dare. You have habenas in pl., and Cassell's says that "reins" is a common definition for the plural. Does "send forth the reins" make sense? No, so try something else. "Send away the reins"? No. "Let go the reins"? Compare the suggested translation in Cassell's for habenas dare, "loosen the rein."

So you could force your English a bit and say "I loosened the reins for my tears," or "I let go the reins for my tears." Or you could try to think of something more idiomatic and come up with "gave free rein to my tears."

My point is mostly that dictionaries usually give translations for common phrases or combinations of words. Be careful to look at the Latin in your dictionary, not just at the English translations or definitions, and you will find these phrases. Compare other phrases such as opus est, quid agis (under ago), etc. Secondarily, there is the fact that as you deal with real Latin, you need to put behind you the temptation to translate a given word always by one definition (that you probably learned in your first year) and keep your mind open to the fact that a word in Latin has a semantic range rather than a single sense.