hue and cry, n.
Also 6–7 hu(e)-on-cry, 7 huoncry, 8 hewing cry. (Often hyphened.)
[Anglo-Norman hu e cri, the two words hue n.2 and cry n., combined in a legal phrase, which was sometimes even treated as one word.
(There is some ground to think that hue as distinct from cry originally meant inarticulate sound, including that of a horn or trumpet as well as of the voice: cf. quot. 1769 in 2, and Du Cange s.v. Huesium; also horning.)]
1. Law. Outcry calling for the pursuit of a felon, raised by the party aggrieved, by a constable, etc.
| [1292 Year-bk. 20–21 Edw. I (Rolls) 339 Les presentors de la vyle de Hulle aveyt concele Hu e cry e sanck espandu. 1292 Britton i. vi. §4 Ou homme serra trové occys..ne heu ne cri ne avera levé.] 1502 Arnolde Chron. (1811) 90 Ony persone..that wyll not helpe constable, sergeauntis and other officers..when hue and crye is made. 1555 in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) III. xxvii. 213 For keeping the statutes of hue and cry. c 1575 Balfour's Practicks (1754) 512 The finder sall raise the hoy and cry. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet (1844) 29 Martin, wee are now following after thee with hue and crie, and are hard at thy heeles. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. ii. Imposture 345 He flies, And still looks back for fear of Hu-on-cries. 1609 Skene tr. Sc. Acts Malc. II, c. 15 §1 [To be] followed, with huy and cry. 1668 Lond. Gaz. No. 324/3 That Huy and Cry be immediately raised and pursued with diligence. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 454 He..flies beyond Persuit of Huon-cries. 1782 Cowper Gilpin 236 Six gentlemen upon the road..They raised the hue and cry:—‘Stop thief! stop thief!—a highwayman!’ 1838 Dickens O. Twist x, But the old gentleman was not the only person who raised the hue-and-cry. |
b. A proclamation for the capture of a criminal or the finding of stolen goods.
| 1601 Nottingham Rec. IV. 256 Searchinge for suspected persons vpon huy and crye. 1657 W. Morice Coena quasi κοινὴ Def. xxi. 180 If a hue and cry should issue for such persons as carry the marks of Diotrephes. 1685 Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 147 Wm. Haigue Request y⊇ Secretry that a hue and Cry from East Jersie..might have some force and authority to pass this Province..; the Secretary Indorsed it and Sealed it with y⊇ Seal of y⊇ Province. 1720 in Rutland Gloss. (E.D.S.) s.v. Hewing cry, For a hewing cry, 2d. 1834 Medwin Angler in Wales I. 151 No Hue-and-Cry was published, no means taken for my re-apprehension. |
c. An official gazette in which particulars about offences committed, offenders ‘wanted’, etc. are published for the information of the authorities.
In the English Police Gazette the phrase ceased to form part of the title on March 30, 1839, but it is still (1898) so used in that of the Royal Irish Constabulary.
| 1825 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 279 Men literally without a name, except it be recorded in the Hue-and-Cry. 1838 Dickens O. Twist xv, Deeply absorbed in the interesting pages of the Hue-and-Cry. 1898 (title) The Police Gazette, or Hue-and-Cry. Published (by Authority) for Ireland on every Tuesday and Friday. |
2. The pursuit of a felon with such outcry.
| 1648 Mayne Amorous War i. i, A Hue and Crye of fourty thousand. 1722 De Foe Moll Flanders (1840) 326 The hue and cry was stopped, and the high constable went back again. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. xxi. (1809) 293 An hue..and cry, hutesium et clamor, is the old common law process of pursuing, with horn and with voice, all felons. |
3. generally. A clamour or shout of pursuit or assault; a cry of alarm or opposition; outcry.
| 1584 D. Powel Lloyd's Cambria 152 Set vpon them with great hew and crie. a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. i. x. §4 (1622) 105 Whom the Heathens haue pursued with such an Hue-and-Crie for most damnable Atheists. 1697 Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. ii. 133 Prosecuted by Apparitions, and pursued by Hue and Crys from the other World. 1846 Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. i. i. i. (1848) 3 note, The public took up the hue and cry conscientiously enough. 1871 Smiles Character v. (1876) 126 When the ‘Novum Organon’ appeared, a hue-and-cry was raised against it. |
| attrib. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit. iv. 60 With his..hue-and-cry style of harangue. |
Hence hue-and-cry v., to raise the hue and cry, make an outcry; to pursue with hue and cry.
| a 1734 North Exam. (1740) 233 We may hue and cry all over his Book, and hear no Tidings of them. 1830 Gentl. Mag. Nov. 432/1 The Hedge Hog, hue-and-cried, like a felon. |