cry havoc

Idioms  

1. 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.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cry havoc

They must have known those they had abandoned would cry havoc.

From New York Times ● Apr. 21, 2021

Pittsfield, Mass, was the first to cry havoc.

From Time Magazine Archive

District attorneys across the country are beginning to cry havoc: it just does not seem right for Perry & Co. never to lose a case.

From Time Magazine Archive

The very quality that enriches the vocabulary--its undiscriminating tolerance for the new--obliges dictionary editors to acknowledge such a gallimaufry of new words and phrases that even the most casual browser wants to cry havoc.

From Time Magazine Archive

"If it's war she wants, cry havoc and let slip the sleuth hounds."

From We Can't Have Everything by Rupert Hughes