cry wolf
verbEtymology From the fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf, where a little boy amuses himself by repeatedly crying "wolf" to see the panic he causes in the community, but is consequently ignored when he tries to alert them to a real wolf.
1
Idiomatic To raise a false alarm; to constantly warn others about an imagined threat, thereby failing to get assistance when a real threat appears.
- The politicians would cry wolf at the slightest provocation so when the real threat appeared no one believed them.
- The newspaper placards that had cried "wolf!" so often, cried "wolf!" now in vain.1907, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter II, in The War in the Air: […], London: George Bell and Sons, published 1908, →OCLC:
4 more examples
- […]and the critical sense of the professors counts for little, for they cry wolf too often[…][1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, chapter 5, in The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 36:
- […]those who created the worst economic mess in postwar history should be the last people crying wolf 1,000 days into this administration[…]1983, Ronald Reagan, Presidential Radio Address - 15 October, 1983:
- These intensifying disasters now striking richer countries, she said, show that developing countries seeking the world’s help to fight climate change “have not been crying wolf.”2021 July 17, Somini Sengupta, quoting Ulka Kelkar, “‘No One Is Safe’: Extreme Weather Batters the Wealthy World”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 30 Jul 2021:
- The influential tech analyst Ben Thompson has also criticised [Dario] Amodei for crying wolf about the risks of AI, which he describes as a “disaster-porn-as-marketing tool”.2026 April 18, John Thornhill, quoting Ben Thompson, “Lunch with the FT: Dario Amodei”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3:
- Related terms
- Chicken Little