cry wolf
English
Etymology
From the fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf, where a little boy amuses himself by crying "wolf" to see the panic he causes in the community, but consequently does not get help when a real wolf appears.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
cry wolf (third-person singular simple present cries wolf, present participle crying wolf, simple past and past participle cried wolf)
- (idiomatic) To raise a false alarm; to constantly warn others about an imagined threat, thereby failing to get assistance when a real threat appears.
- The politicians would cry wolf at the slightest provocation so when the real threat appeared no one believed them.
Quotations
- 1907, H. G. Wells, The War in the Air, chapter II, section 4
- The newspaper placards that had cried "wolf!" so often, cried "wolf!" now in vain.
- 1919, H. L. Mencken, The American Language, chapter 5
- ...and the critical sense of the professors counts for little, for they cry wolf too often...
- 1983, Ronald Reagan, Presidential Radio Address - 15 October, 1983
- ...those who created the worst economic mess in postwar history should be the last people crying wolf 1,000 days into this administration...
Translations
See also
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.