hue and cry

American  

noun

1. Early English Law. the pursuit of a felon or an offender with loud outcries or clamor to give an alarm.

2. any public clamor, protest, or alarm.

   a general hue and cry against the war.

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hue and cry British  

noun

1. (formerly) the pursuit of a suspected criminal with loud cries in order to raise the alarm

2. any loud public outcry

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hue and cry Cultural  

1. Any loud clamor or protest intended to incite others to action: “In the 1980s, there was a great hue and cry for educational reform.”

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hue and cry Idioms  

1. 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.

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Etymology

Origin of hue and cry

1250–1300; Middle English, translation of Anglo-French hu et cri. See hue ², cry

Example Sentences

According to witnesses, a "hue and cry" drew villagers to the spot where Nath and Das were being held.

From BBC • Apr. 23, 2026

Neither faced the hue and cry that enveloped Feinstein.

From Los Angeles Times • May 31, 2024

I asked people then why living in such awful situations wasn't creating more of a hue and cry for change.

From Salon • Jul. 9, 2023

You can raise a hue and cry, Still I’ll never say goodbye, Owner till the day I die, and kvelling!

From Washington Post • Nov. 18, 2021

She would glance back occasionally, alert for the hue and cry with which they might be hunted.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Related Words

• brouhaha
• outcry
• uproar