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cry wolf. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
cry wolf, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
cry wolf in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From the fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf, where a little boy amuses himself by repeatedly crying "wolf" to see the panic he causes in the community, but is consequently ignored when he tries to alert them to a real wolf.
Pronunciation
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.
2021 July 17, Somini Sengupta, quoting Ulka Kelkar, “‘No One Is Safe’: Extreme Weather Batters the Wealthy World”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:These intensifying disasters now striking richer countries, she said, show that developing countries seeking the world’s help to fight climate change “have not been crying wolf.”
Translations
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