cry wolf

Idioms  

1. Raise a false alarm, as in Helen's always crying wolf about attempted break-ins, but the police can never find any evidence. This term comes from the tale about a young shepherd watching his flock who, lonely and fearful, called for help by shouting “Wolf!” After people came to his aid several times and saw no wolf, they ignored his cries when a wolf actually attacked his sheep. The tale appeared in a translation of Aesop's fables by Roger L'Estrange (1692), and the expression has been applied to any false alarm since the mid-1800s.

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Example Sentences

That sort of description typically makes me urp; too many critics serve it up every week or two and they cry wolf, or masterwork, or not-to-be-missed too often to be trusted.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 12, 2024

“We don’t want to cry wolf and say, ‘Oh, we’re gonna get record amounts of rain, catastrophic flooding,’ and then you get about half what you think.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 17, 2024

“You can’t just kind of cry wolf all the time,” Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago’s health commissioner, told The Times.

From New York Times • Jul. 21, 2022

"If you cry wolf too often, people will never pay attention," said epidemiologist Mark Wilson, an emeritus professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

From Salon • Dec. 26, 2020

Are those who cry wolf the loudest, entirely clear themselves, of a fondness for fat mutton?

From Guano A Treatise of Practical Information for Farmers by Robinson, Solon