far cry from, a

1. far from it . An interjection expressing strong denial, as in I thought you were bored.—Far from it, I enjoyed the evening .

2. Also, far from . Very different from, as in Thinking someone is stupid is a far cry from saying so , or Far from being neutral, Jack regarded him as his friend . The first term may have originated as calculating the distance of one's enemies by shouting, but it has been used figuratively (signifying difference rather than distance) since the early 1800s. The variant, dating from the mid-1600s, is most often used with a participle, as in the example ( being ).

Related Words

• disparate
• dissimilar
• distinct
• divergent
• unalike
• unlike
• unsimilar