cuckoo cry

English

Noun

cuckoo cry (plural cuckoo cries)

  1. A repetitively incessant call, proclamation, statement, plea, etc.
    • 1840 May 7, The Launceston Advertiser, Tasmania, page 1, column 4:
      How many thousands, influenced by the cuckoo-cry of the cold-blooded political economists, have argued thus[.]
    • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Phantom Rickshaw”, in The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Tales, Allahabad: A.H. Wheeler and Co., page 10:
      “Jack, darling!” was her one eternal cuckoo-cry, “I’m sure it’s all a mistake—a hideous mistake; and we’ll be good friends again some day. Please forgive me, Jack, dear.”
    • 1942 January 31, The Voice, Hobart, page 5, column 2:
      “Starve? Stuff and nonsense!” he retorted testily. “No able-bodied fellow need starve nowadays. [...] Pshaw! Starve! That's always your, cuckoo cry!”
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