| 1. | Early English Law. the pursuit of a felon or an offender with loud outcries or clamor to give an alarm. |
| 2. | any public clamor, protest, or alarm: a general hue and cry against the war. |
| hue and cry n.
[Middle English hew and cri, partial translation of Anglo-Norman hu e cri : hu, outcry, clamor (from Old French huer, to shout, of imitative origin) + e, and + cri, cry (from Old French crier, to cry; see cry).] |
Any loud clamor or protest intended to incite others to action: “In the 1980s, there was a great hue and cry for educational reform.”
hue and cry
A public clamor, as of protest or demand. For example, The reformers raised a hue and cry about political corruption. This redundant expression (hue and cry both mean "an outcry"), dating from the 1200s, originally meant "an outcry calling for the pursuit of a criminal." By the mid-1500s it was also being used more broadly, as in the example.
hue and cry
early English legal practice of pursuing a criminal with cries and sounds of alarm. It was the duty of any person wronged or discovering a felony to raise the hue and cry, and his neighbours were bound to come and assist him in the pursuit and apprehension of the offender. All those joining in the pursuit were justified in arresting the person pursued, even if it turned out that he was innocent. If the criminal bore apparent evidence of guilt on his person and if he resisted capture, he could be killed on the spot; if he submitted to capture, his fate was decided by due process. The various statutes relating to hue and cry were finally repealed in the early part of the 19th century.
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