(idiomatic) To raise a false alarm; to constantly warn others about an imagined threat, thereby failing to get assistance when a real threat appears.
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The politicians would cry wolf at the slightest provocation so when the real threat appeared no one believed them.
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The newspaper placards that had cried "wolf!" so often, cried "wolf!" now in vain.
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1907, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter II, in The War in the Air: […], London: George Bell and Sons, published 1908, →OCLC:
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[…] and the critical sense of the professors counts for little, for they cry wolf too often […]
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1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, chapter [/S%3AThe_American_Language%2FChapter_5 5], in The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 36:
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[…] those who created the worst economic mess in postwar history should be the last people crying wolf 1,000 days into this administration […]
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1983, Ronald Reagan, Presidential Radio Address - 15 October, 1983:
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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.”
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2021 July 17, Somini Sengupta, quoting Ulka Kelkar, “‘No One Is Safe’: Extreme Weather Batters the Wealthy World”, in The New York Times[1], →ISSN: