| Dictionary: hue and cry |
[Middle English hew and cri, partial translation of Anglo-Norman hu e cri : hu, outcry, clamor (from Old French huer, to shout, of imitative origin) + e, and + cri, cry (from Old French crier, to cry; see cry).]
| 5min Related Video: hue and cry |
| Idioms: hue and cry |
A public clamor, as of protest or demand. For example, The reformers raised a hue and cry about political corruption. This redundant expression (hue and cry both mean "an outcry"), dating from the 1200s, originally meant "an outcry calling for the pursuit of a criminal." By the
mid-1500s it was also being used more broadly, as in the example.
| British History: hue and cry |
Early English common law process of pursuing felons ‘with horn and with voice’ (hutesium et clamor). The outcry could be raised by peace-officer or private citizen, whereupon everyone was duty bound to search and pursue on horse or foot. The main statutes and amendments (1285, 1585, 1735) were repealed in 1827, though the element of ‘citizen's arrest’ has persisted.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: hue and cry |
| Wikipedia: Hue and cry |
In common law, a hue and cry (Latin, hutesium et clamor, "a horn and shouting") is a process by which bystanders are summoned to assist in the apprehension of a criminal who has been witnessed in the act of committing a crime.
By the statute of Winchester, 13 Edw. I cc. 1 and 4, (1285) it was provided that anyone, either a constable or a private citizen, who witnessed a crime shall make hue and cry, and that the hue and cry must be kept up against the fleeing criminal from town to town and from county to county, until the felon is apprehended and delivered to the sheriff. All able-bodied men, upon hearing the shouts, were obliged to assist in the pursuit of the criminal, which makes it comparable to the posse comitatus. It was moreover provided that a hundred that failed to give pursuit on the hue and cry would become liable in case of any theft or robbery. Those who raised a hue and cry falsely were themselves guilty of a crime.
In Oliver Twist, Fagin reads a magazine called the Hue and Cry which was a weekly Police Gazette detailing crimes and wanted people.
In contemporary terms, the hue and cry is also used figuratively to describe the behaviour of the news media, or to other groups that seek to increase awareness of a perceived injustice
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| cry, crying (Idiom) |
| statute of Winchester |
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| British History. A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Hue and cry". Read more |
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