far cry
far cries
The expression far cry means "very different from." If you live in a tiny cottage and your next door neighbor has an enormous mansion, you could say that your house is a far cry from your neighbor's.
Something is a far cry when you're disappointed by its difference from something else. You might say, "This hotel is a far cry from the way it looked on the web site" if you're let down by your tiny, windowless room. The phrase within cry of has been used since the 1600's to mean "close enough to be heard," and far cry came along in the mid-1800's, meaning "too far away to be heard," or a figuratively long distance.
Definitions of far cry
-
a disappointing disparity“it was a far cry from what he had expected”
-
type of:
-
disparity
inequality or difference in some respect
-
disparity
-
distance estimated in terms of the audibility of a cry“it's a far cry from here”
-
type of:
-
farawayness, farness, remoteness
the property of being remote
-
farawayness, farness, remoteness
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘far cry'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
Send us feedback
Word Family
EDITOR'S CHOICE
Look up far cry for the last time
Close your vocabulary gaps with personalized learning that focuses on teaching the words you need to know.
