Idiom
cry for help
Meaning
Acting out as a means of displaying a subconscious desire for attention or help.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“His angry outburst was really a cry for help.”
“She kept skipping class, but her teachers saw it as a cry for help and talked to her.”
“The vandalism seemed like mindless destruction, yet those who knew him understood it as a desperate cry for help from a grieving teenager.”
Examples
simple
“His angry outburst was really a cry for help.”
contextual
“She kept skipping class, but her teachers saw it as a cry for help and talked to her.”
complex
“The vandalism seemed like mindless destruction, yet those who knew him understood it as a desperate cry for help from a grieving teenager.”
Key words
Related idioms
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