CRY FOR

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cry for mean? 

• CRY FOR (verb)
  The verb CRY FOR has 1 sense:

1. need badly or desperately

  Familiarity information: CRY FOR used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRY FOR (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Need badly or desperately

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

cry for; cry out for

Context example:

This question cries out for an answer

Hypernyms (to "cry for" is one way to...):

ask; call for; demand; involve; necessitate; need; postulate; require; take (require as useful, just, or proper)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

 Context examples 

To us there is no fiend in hell like Juan Murillo, and no peace in life while his victims still cry for vengeance.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Here I sat down on a doorstep, quite spent and exhausted with the efforts I had already made, and with hardly breath enough to cry for the loss of my box and half-guinea.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Here is the account: Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and a splash in the water.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They cry for mercy.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A splintered boat and a number of crates and fragments of spars rising and falling on the waves showed us where the vessel had foundered; but there was no sign of life, and we had turned away in despair when we heard a cry for help, and saw at some distance a piece of wreckage with a man lying stretched across it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)