cry for help
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cry, for, help.
We heard the drowning woman's cries for help and ran to assist.
cry
UK /kɹaɪ/ US /kɹaɪ/
verb 5noun 5
Definitions
verb
1
To shed tears; to weep, especially in anger or sadness.
That sad movie always makes me cry.
- Emerl: “There’s nothing worse than making a girl cry!” That’s what Sonic said...
2
To utter loudly; to call out; to declare publicly.
All, all, cry shame against ye, yet I'll speak.
[T]he Man put his fingers in his Ears, and ran on crying, Life, Life, Eternal Life: [...]
3
To shout, scream, yell.
And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice.
4
To forcefully attract attention or proclaim one’s presence.
My secrets cry aloud. I have no need for tongue.
5
To utter inarticulate sounds, as animals do.
the young ravens which cry
In a cowslip's bell I lie / There I couch when owls do cry.
noun
1
A shedding of tears; the act of crying.
After we broke up, I retreated to my room for a good cry.
2
A shout or scream.
I heard a cry from afar.
3
Words shouted or screamed.
a battle cry
4
A clamour or outcry.
His pupil, Maimonides, that he might not be under the necessity of violating the laws of friendship and gratitude, by joining the general cry against Averroes, left Corduba.
5
A group of hounds.
A cry more tunable / Was never hollaed to, nor cheered with horn.
1667, Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II, in Edward Hawkins, The Poetical Works of John Milton: With Notes of Various Authors, Vol. I, W. Baxter, J. Parker, G. B. Whittaker (publs., 1824) pages 124 to 126, lines 648 to 659. […] Before the gates there sat / On either side a formidable shape; / The one seem’d woman to the waste, and fair, / But ended foul in many a scaly fold / Voluminous and vast, a serpent arm’d / With mortal sting: about her middle round / A cry of hell-hounds never ceasing bark’d / With wide Cerberean mouths full loud and rung / A hideous peal; yet, when they list,would creep, / If ought disturb'd their noise, into her womb, / and kennel there, yet there still bark’d and howl’d, / Within unseen. […]
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