cry havoc
Sound an alarm or warning, as in In his sermon the pastor cried havoc to the congregation's biases against gays. The noun havoc was once a command for invaders to begin looting and killing the defenders' town. Shakespeare so used it in Julius Caesar (3:1): “Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the dogs of war.” By the 19th century the phrase had acquired its present meaning.
Words Nearby cry havoc
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
How to use cry havoc in a sentence
Do they in slumber enjoy again the midnight raid upon the marrow-bed, or cry havoc on the choicest lilies of the garden?
In the West Country | Francis A. KnightIf it's war she wants, cry havoc and let slip the sleuth hounds.
We Can't Have Everything | Rupert HughesThe first thing I knew I was sprinkling hell-fire on them, 'cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.'
Different Girls | VariousTo cry havoc appears to have been a signal for indiscriminate slaughter.
The Ornithology of Shakespeare | James Edmund Harting
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