Word.ws English Dictionary

more cry than wool

more cry than wool phrase: dramatic assertions that are backed by little evidence.

Phrase

more cry than wool

  1. (idiomatic) Dramatic assertions that are backed by little evidence.
    • Theſe are the Crimes of which we are guilty, before any Law to prohibit us: it were more allowable to plant Poiſon than to Manufacture with us, and we lie, it ſeems, under ſuch an Obloquy and Clamour, (which, as far as I can judge by your Letter, you alſo liſten to) that, as to import our Cattle to...1747, John Smith, Chronicon Ruſticum Commerciale; or, Memoirs of Wool, &c., London: T. Osborne, page 304
    • In rebuttal, the petitioner offers more cry than wool. He points first to the vague threats that his family and friends relayed to him during his 1990 return to El Salvador, and speculates that members of the FMLN still sought to harm him at that time. This is unabashed surmise.1999 February 26, Bruce M. Selya, “Aguilar-Solis v. INS”, in 1st Cir. 1999, case no. 98-1484

Forms of more cry than wool

alternative formall cry and no wool

Origin of more cry than wool

Derived from the practice of shearing sheep, in which the sheep may "cry" as their wool is removed. The earliest recorded variation appears to be by 15th century English lawyer John Fortescue, who wrote "Moche Crye and no Wull" in De laudibus legum Angliae (c. 1470), ch. x.

Questions about more cry than wool

What does more cry than wool mean?
More cry than wool means dramatic assertions that are backed by little evidence.
What part of speech is more cry than wool?
More cry than wool is a phrase.

Words near more cry than wool in the dictionary

  1. more betoken
  2. more by token
  3. more Catholic than the Pope
  4. more comfortable than an old shoe
  5. more confusing than a Rubik's Cube
  6. more cry than wool
  7. more cushion for the pushin'
  8. more dead than alive
  9. more dollars than sense
  10. more equal
  11. more grease to your elbow

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: more cry than wool (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-more cry than wool.ogg.

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