more cry than wool

English - English

Definition of more cry than wool in English English dictionary

Asserted but not grounded in reality

In rebuttal, the petitioner offers more cry than wool. He points first to the vague threats that his family and friends relayed to him during his 1990 return to El Salvador, and speculates that members of the FMLN still sought to harm him at that time. This is unabashed surmise. Aguilar-Solis v. INS, case no. 98-1484 (1st Cir. 1998).

Turkish pronunciation

môr kray dhın wûl

Pronunciation

/ˈmôr ˈkrī ᴛʜən ˈwo͝ol/ /ˈmɔːr ˈkraɪ ðən ˈwʊl/

Etymology

() Derived from the practice of shearing sheep, in which the sheep may "cry" as their wool is removed. The earliest recorded variation appears to be by 15th century English lawyer John Fortescue, who wrote "Moche Crye and no Wull" in De laudibus legum Angliae (c. 1470), ch. x.