hue and cry
noun
Early English Law. the pursuit of a felon or an offender with loud outcries or clamor to give an alarm.
any public clamor, protest, or alarm: a general hue and cry against the war.
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Origin of hue and cry
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for hue and cry
hue and cry
noun
Word Origin for hue and cry
C16: from Anglo-French hu et cri, from Old French hue outcry, from huer to shout, from hu! shout of warning + cri cry
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
hue and cry
Any loud clamor or protest intended to incite others to action: “In the 1980s, there was a great hue and cry for educational reform.”
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
hue and cry
A public clamor, as of protest or demand. For example, The reformers raised a hue and cry about political corruption. This redundant expression (hue and cry both mean “an outcry”), dating from the 1200s, originally meant “an outcry calling for the pursuit of a criminal.” By the mid-1500s it was also being used more broadly, as in the example.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.