Expressions with CRY: crybaby, far cry, cry wolf

cry: over spilt milk; far cry; cry on shoulder, crybaby

Here are a few expressions with CRY, we’ve also got a few phrasal verbs like cry off, cry out against and cry down

crybaby

– person (esp child) who cries or complains too readily with little /without cause; a person without confidence

• My younger brother is a crybaby, you just touch him and he starts crying.
• The football coach is like a crybaby, he’s always complaining about refereeing decisions or the weather. he never accepts that his team don’t play well enough.

in full cry

– eagerly demanding;shouting, complaining and protesting. Animals in hot pursuit

• The workers were in full cry over the company’s plans to relocate.
• When the wolves smelt the injured deer they went in full cry to catch it.

cry over spilt milk

– waste time being sorry for something bad that cannot be repaired

• Yes, we should have won the game but we didn’t. There’s no point in crying over spilt milk, now we have to prepare for the next match.

a far cry from

– very different from (something)

• This weather is a far cry from what we had last week.
• Sophie is a successful model now, she’s a far cry from the shy little girl I knew at school

cry for the moon

– to ask for the impossible

• It’s very difficult to get a pay increase these days, you might as well cry for the moon.

cry on (someone’s) shoulder

– get consolation from someone.

• I’ll be your friend forever! You know you can always cry on my shoulder if you need me.

cry to sleep

– cry until one falls asleep.

Little Mary was very upset because Ann told her she wasn’t her best friend any more. She couldn’t stop crying and eventually cried herself to sleep.

cry wolf

– raise a false alarm

• When the firemen arrived at the house there was no fire, someone had cried wolf. They were not happy!
• Mummy! Mummy! come quickly, Jimmy’s fallen out of bed. … ” Jimmy is fine. Please don’t cry wolf Emily. Another time it may be true and I won’t believe you.

Here’s a link to idioms and  phrasal verbs with CRY, including cry out against, cry off and cry down.   There are more lessons with other verbs in the Phrasal Verb Index   it includes run and  think. If you want you can  practise by doing these exercises.