that's a far cry from
that's a big difference to
TRANSLATION
a far cry from something = großer Unterschied, weit entfernt von etwas --- GOOGLE INDEX a far cry: approximately 31,000,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
It’s A FAR CRY FROM her day job as an IT programme manager, but Lucinda Casey has won over top fashion critics, securing a place on the glossy pages of Italian Vogue.
(Belfast Telegraph)
---
The mood at the Bonn conference was A FAR CRY FROM the early days of the Afghan war when, fresh from toppling the Taliban, Western powers hoped to bring permanent peace to a country which has now been at war for more than three decades.
(Reuters news service)
(Belfast Telegraph)
---
The mood at the Bonn conference was A FAR CRY FROM the early days of the Afghan war when, fresh from toppling the Taliban, Western powers hoped to bring permanent peace to a country which has now been at war for more than three decades.
(Reuters news service)
Did you
know?
a far cry from
idiom
- to be completely different from something
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
An old philosophical thought experiment poses the question, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Another way to ask this question is, "Can one hear a far cry from a falling tree?" It depends of course on how far away the tree is, but the assumption is that the tree is far enough way that one cannot hear its "cry."
A far cry is literally and metaphorically a long distance. It refers to a loud shout which would not be heard at a distance. Thus in a figurative sense "a far cry from something" implies a big difference. The phrase is normally applied by comparing and emphasising the contrast between two things.
Far (and its opposite "near) is a distance adverb that is used in a variety of common expressions to describe physical distances, as well as distances in a figurative sense:
- as far as something goes = to the degree something is considered or exists (As far as revenues go, we are having a good year)
- few and far between = to be very few (Honest politicians seem to be few and far between these days)
- far and wide = many places, across a wide area (I searched far and wide for my keys, but never found them)
- far and away = unquestionably (This is far and away the most reliable automobile I have ever owned)
- from far and near = from all around, from everywhere (People came from far and near to attend the conference)
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Today's television is a far cry from what we had when I was a child."
idiom
- to be completely different from something
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
An old philosophical thought experiment poses the question, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Another way to ask this question is, "Can one hear a far cry from a falling tree?" It depends of course on how far away the tree is, but the assumption is that the tree is far enough way that one cannot hear its "cry."
A far cry is literally and metaphorically a long distance. It refers to a loud shout which would not be heard at a distance. Thus in a figurative sense "a far cry from something" implies a big difference. The phrase is normally applied by comparing and emphasising the contrast between two things.
Far (and its opposite "near) is a distance adverb that is used in a variety of common expressions to describe physical distances, as well as distances in a figurative sense:
- as far as something goes = to the degree something is considered or exists (As far as revenues go, we are having a good year)
- few and far between = to be very few (Honest politicians seem to be few and far between these days)
- far and wide = many places, across a wide area (I searched far and wide for my keys, but never found them)
- far and away = unquestionably (This is far and away the most reliable automobile I have ever owned)
- from far and near = from all around, from everywhere (People came from far and near to attend the conference)
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Today's television is a far cry from what we had when I was a child."
