hue and cry
noun
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Let’s say it’s the Middle Ages in England and a villainous highwayman has just made off with your purse of gold. What do you do? You can’t call the police, because in medieval England there is no organized police force, much less telephones; indeed, 911 is even less than a joke in your town—it doesn’t exist! Instead, the job of fighting crime belongs to ordinary citizens. The first step is to raise a stink—victims of or witnesses to a crime are expected to yell something like “stop thief!” so that anyone who hears the “hue and cry” will be legally bound to join in the pursuit of the perfidious pilferer. Fast-forwarding to today, although hue and cry (hue comes from an Old French word meaning “noise” or “outcry”; cry comes from the synonymous Anglo-French cri) was used in legal contexts upon entering English in the 15th century, it now more often refers to general alarm, complaint, or protest.
Examples of hue and cry in a Sentence
Edward Poteat, New York Daily News, 16 Mar. 2025
And for all the hue and cry over gentrification, the fact is gentrifying neighborhoods bring in families with higher incomes to support the businesses that serve all residents.
—Edward Poteat, New York Daily News, 16 Mar. 2025
The usual anti-Israel suspects have organized a great hue and cry over this intervention while remaining strangely quiet over Turkey’s attacks on the U.S.-backed Kurds of Syria’s northeast, which has overrun a vastly greater area and displaced tens of thousands of civilians.
—Bassem Eid, New York Daily News, 2 Jan. 2025
So the Establishment world that reads and writes has also joined the hue and cry.
—Liz Smith, Vulture, 31 Jan. 2024
See All Example Sentences for hue and cry
Cite this Entry
“Hue and cry.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hue%20and%20cry. Accessed 1 Jul. 2025.
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