cry havoc

verb

To shout out 'Havoc!'; that is, to give an army the order to plunder.

OriginOld French crier →
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Meanings

verbcry havoc (third-person singular simple present cries havoc, present participle crying havoc, simple past and past participle cried havoc)

present singular third person cries havoc · participle present crying havoc · participle past cried havoc · past cried havoc

  1. obsoleteTo shout out 'Havoc!'; that is, to give an army the order to plunder.

    Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war

    1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
    2 more examples

    Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt

    c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

    War and mortality cry havoc, yet the center holds. That center is the affirmation that actions of body and heroic spirit are in themselves a thing of beauty, that renown shall outweigh the passing terrors of death, and that no catastrophe, not even the fall of Troy, is final.

    1961 Aug, George Steiner, “Homer and the Scholars”, in The Atlantic Monthly, page 77

Origin

  1. Old Frenchcrier“cry out, shout”
  2. Englishcry havoc

From Middle English, from the Anglo-Norman phrase crier havok (“cry havoc”) (a signal to soldiers to seize plunder), from Old French crier (“cry out, shout”) + havot (“pillaging, looting”).

More words from Old French

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

cry havoc. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cry%20havoc

MLA

“cry havoc.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cry%20havoc. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cry havoc,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cry%20havoc.

Source: cry havoc on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.