Idiom
Cry wolf
To cry wolf means to raise a false alarm, especially again and again, so that people stop believing you when there is real trouble.
How people use it
People use it for someone who exaggerates or invents problems: "He's cried wolf so many times that nobody listens anymore." The phrase carries a warning about lost trust. It often comes with "too many times" or "again." It is informal but common in news and opinion writing, for example about alarms, warnings or complaints. The person who does this is sometimes called "the boy who cried wolf," even when the person is an adult or an organization.
Also said: the boy who cried wolf.
Examples
- If you cry wolf about every small bug, the tech team won't hurry when something serious breaks.
- Mia's little brother likes to cry wolf about stomachaches on test days, so her parents are skeptical.
- The weather service worries that too many false warnings will feel like crying wolf.
Where it comes from
It comes from Aesop's fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf. A young shepherd keeps shouting that a wolf is attacking the sheep, just to watch the villagers come running. When a wolf really does come, no one believes him, and the flock is lost. The lesson that liars are not believed even when they tell the truth made the phrase common in English.
Check yourself
1. What happens to someone who cries wolf too often?
Answer: People stop believing their warnings. Crying wolf means false alarms, which make people ignore you later.
2. Which fable does cry wolf come from?
Answer: The Boy Who Cried Wolf. In Aesop's fable, a shepherd boy's false alarms mean nobody believes him when a wolf comes.
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