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

“I said, ‘Where’s the hue and cry from the community?’

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 20, 2025

Zaslav responded to the film community's hue and cry by whispering to The Hollywood Reporter that two of the studio's most respected producers, Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, will assume oversight of the channel.

From Salon • Jun. 26, 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

“If he raises the hue and cry, we’s dead as a dog in ditch-water.”

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

Related Words

• brouhaha
• outcry
• uproar