cry havoc

Definition

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

Etymology

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”).

Example Sentences

• "Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war"
• "Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt"
• "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."