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A far cry

Posted by Smokey Stover on March 01, 2006

In Reply to: A far cry posted by Bruce Kahl on March 01, 2006

: : what is the meaning of the phrase "a far cry"?

: It means that something is very different from something else.

: Literally it means "a long distance".

: The President of the US, George Bush, is a far cry from a humanitarian and peace-loving individual.

The word "cry" is often used to mean shouting, or making noise. The town crier shouted out the news or sometimes as much of it as those in charge saw fit to cry. In mountainous part of the U.S. people would sometimes shout across a valley to one another. Within cry of is an expression meaning withing calling distance, or shouting distance. So a far cry is a long distance, originally literally but now most often figuratively, as above. SS

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