"cry havoc" meaning in English

See cry havoc in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: cries havoc [present, singular, third-person], crying havoc [participle, present], cried havoc [participle, past], cried havoc [past]
Etymology: From Middle English, from the Anglo-Norman phrase crier havok (“cry havoc”) (a signal to soldiers to seize plunder), from Old French crier (“cry out, shout”) + havot (“pillaging, looting”). Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|-}} Middle English, {{der|en|xno|-}} Anglo-Norman, {{m|fro|crier havok||cry havoc}} crier havok (“cry havoc”), {{der|en|fro|crier||cry out, shout}} Old French crier (“cry out, shout”), {{m|fro|havot||pillaging, looting}} havot (“pillaging, looting”) Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} cry havoc (third-person singular simple present cries havoc, present participle crying havoc, simple past and past participle cried havoc)
  1. (obsolete) To shout out 'Havoc!'; that is, to give an army the order to plunder. Tags: obsolete
    Sense id: en-cry_havoc-en-verb-YTFVdkHu Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for cry havoc meaning in English (2.3kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
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      },
      "expansion": "Middle English",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "xno",
        "3": "-"
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      "expansion": "Anglo-Norman",
      "name": "der"
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fro",
        "2": "crier havok",
        "3": "",
        "4": "cry havoc"
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      "expansion": "crier havok (“cry havoc”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fro",
        "3": "crier",
        "4": "",
        "5": "cry out, shout"
      },
      "expansion": "Old French crier (“cry out, shout”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fro",
        "2": "havot",
        "3": "",
        "4": "pillaging, looting"
      },
      "expansion": "havot (“pillaging, looting”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English, from the Anglo-Norman phrase crier havok (“cry havoc”) (a signal to soldiers to seize plunder), from Old French crier (“cry out, shout”) + havot (“pillaging, looting”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cries havoc",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "crying havoc",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cried havoc",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
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    },
    {
      "form": "cried havoc",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "cry havoc (third-person singular simple present cries havoc, present participle crying havoc, simple past and past participle cried havoc)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1961 Aug, George Steiner, “Homer and the Scholars”, in The Atlantic Monthly, page 77",
          "text": "War and mortality cry havoc, yet the center holds. That center is the affirmation that actions of body and heroic spirit are in themselves a thing of beauty, that renown shall outweigh the passing terrors of death, and that no catastrophe, not even the fall of Troy, is final.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To shout out 'Havoc!'; that is, to give an army the order to plunder."
      ],
      "id": "en-cry_havoc-en-verb-YTFVdkHu",
      "links": [
        [
          "shout",
          "shout"
        ],
        [
          "army",
          "army"
        ],
        [
          "order",
          "order"
        ],
        [
          "plunder",
          "plunder"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete) To shout out 'Havoc!'; that is, to give an army the order to plunder."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cry havoc"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
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      "expansion": "Middle English",
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
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      "expansion": "Anglo-Norman",
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    {
      "args": {
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        "2": "crier havok",
        "3": "",
        "4": "cry havoc"
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      "expansion": "crier havok (“cry havoc”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fro",
        "3": "crier",
        "4": "",
        "5": "cry out, shout"
      },
      "expansion": "Old French crier (“cry out, shout”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fro",
        "2": "havot",
        "3": "",
        "4": "pillaging, looting"
      },
      "expansion": "havot (“pillaging, looting”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English, from the Anglo-Norman phrase crier havok (“cry havoc”) (a signal to soldiers to seize plunder), from Old French crier (“cry out, shout”) + havot (“pillaging, looting”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cries havoc",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "crying havoc",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cried havoc",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cried havoc",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "cry havoc (third-person singular simple present cries havoc, present participle crying havoc, simple past and past participle cried havoc)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms derived from Anglo-Norman",
        "English terms derived from Middle English",
        "English terms derived from Old French",
        "English terms inherited from Middle English",
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1961 Aug, George Steiner, “Homer and the Scholars”, in The Atlantic Monthly, page 77",
          "text": "War and mortality cry havoc, yet the center holds. That center is the affirmation that actions of body and heroic spirit are in themselves a thing of beauty, that renown shall outweigh the passing terrors of death, and that no catastrophe, not even the fall of Troy, is final.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To shout out 'Havoc!'; that is, to give an army the order to plunder."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "shout",
          "shout"
        ],
        [
          "army",
          "army"
        ],
        [
          "order",
          "order"
        ],
        [
          "plunder",
          "plunder"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete) To shout out 'Havoc!'; that is, to give an army the order to plunder."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cry havoc"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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