to give alarm without cause or reason; to raise a false alarm. This phrase comes from a fable of a young shepherd who, either as a joke, for attention or due to loneliness and fear (depending on the rendition), would cry "Wolf! Wolf!" to get people to come and help him. After people came to his aid several times but found no wolf, they ignored his plea for help when a wolf really did attack and kill his sheep. Since the mid-1800s, the phrase cry wolf has been used to denote any sort of false alarm.