CRY WOLF

To cry wolf is to call for help when it’s not required, which can result in not being believed when help is subsequently needed.

 This idiom refers to the fable of the boy who cried wolf, taken from Aesop’s Fables:

 “A Shepherd-boy, who watched a flock of sheep near a village, brought out the villagers three or four times by crying out, ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ and when his neighbours came to help him, laughed at them for their pains. The Wolf, however, did truly come at last. The Shepherd-boy, now really alarmed, shouted in an agony of terror : ‘Pray, do come and help me ! the Wolf is killing the sheep !’ but no one paid any heed. to his cries, nor rendered any assistance. The Wolf, having no cause of fear, took it easily, and lacerated or destroyed the whole flock. There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.”

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Examples of use:

“‘In the context of the summer of 2018, this is definitely not a case of crying wolf, raising a false alarm: the wolves are now in sight,’ said Phil Williamson, climate researcher at the University of East Anglia.”

“But pro-Brexit campaigners accuse him of ‘crying wolf’ before the 2016 referendum, when he predicted voting to leave the EU could trigger a recession.”

“The following year she told officers not to ‘cry wolf’ over cuts to the police force.”


 The song “Cry Wolf” featured in the album “Scoundrel Days” (1986) by Norwegian band A-ha.

Photo credit: Orest Ukrainsky