rallying cry

noun

plural rallying cries

: a shouted word, phrase, or sound used by a body of fighters before or in battle : battle cry, war cry

… the innocent ejaculation hurrah! became a fearsome rallying cry in Napoleonic times.—

Geoffrey Hughes

: something (such as a catchphrase, incident, or event) that is used to excite people to support a cause or to rouse people to action

Lions captain Sam Warburton issued a rallying cry to his team yesterday … by urging them to "reach for the stars".—

Mick Cleary

Ultimately, just 6 per cent of people would tell businesses to "keep doing what you're doing". If these findings do not act as a rallying cry for change, it is unclear what will.—

Frank Luntz

Both campaigns have seized on the attempt to ban that book in schools as a rallying cry.—

Edward Keenan

The much-despised gabelle, a tax first imposed on salt in France in the 13th century and at times soaring to 10 times the cost of producing salt in the first place, became a rallying cry for the French Revolution …—

Ligaya Mishan

Examples of rallying cry in a Sentence

the rallying cry of a political movement “We believe!” became the rallying cry of the fans.

Recent Examples on the Web This is the season for rallying cries, as Silicon Valley’s tech leaders link arms with the like-minded and square up against ideological foes in politics, culture, and anything else. —

Allie Garfinkle, Fortune, 6 Sep. 2024 To be sure, onshore deployments serve as a convenient rallying cry for terrorist propaganda, forming part of Osama bin Laden’s casus belli against the United States in the 1990s, for example. —

Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs, 17 Oct. 2016 When the home team took the field for the first time at the Paris Games, a giant banner unrolled at one end of the stadium: Allez Les Bleus, the rallying cry of the French national teams. —

Rick Maese, Washington Post, 24 July 2024 People on the left hurled it at those on the right, seizing on it as a fresh rallying cry amid a broader burst of energy sparked by the ascension of Vice President Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. —

Kat Tenbarge, NBC News, 3 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for rallying cry

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rallying cry.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.