What does the saying "Don't cry wolf" mean?

The saying “Don’t cry wolf” means don’t give a false alarm. It warns against repeatedly claiming that something dangerous or urgent is happening when it is not.

The expression comes from “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” the fable traditionally associated with Aesop. In the story, a shepherd boy repeatedly tricks villagers into believing a wolf is attacking his flock. When a real wolf finally appears, the villagers no longer believe him, so nobody comes to help.

The phrase is also used more broadly for exaggeration, unreliable warnings, or repeated predictions that fail to happen. For example, someone who constantly announces fake emergencies may be told not to “cry wolf.”

The lesson is about trust as much as honesty: false alarms can make genuine warnings ineffective. A related expression is “wolf-wolfing,” while the phrase should not be confused with simply “crying wolf” as a literal reference to an animal. In ordinary English, the idiom describes undermining your credibility by raising needless alarms.