Apedia

Wolf Real Shepherd Sheep Cry Worry Brother Starts

Idiom Cry Wolf
Example Don't worry if my little brother starts screaming that there's a ghost in his room. He always cries wolf.
Meaning to give a false alarm of danger; to warn of a peril that you know is not real
Origin One of Aesop's most famous fables tells of a bored shepherd boy who falsely cried that a wolf was killing his sheep. When people came and found out there was no wolf threatening the sheep, they were annoyed. The shepherd did this once too often; one day when a real wolf came, no one came when he called out, and the wolf ate the sheep.

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