Definition of "cry for" []

• Need badly or desperately (verb)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "“For the Neo-Platonist,” according to classical scholar Charles Boer, “the soul does not want to be in the body, and melancholy is its cry for escape.”"
• "And the Red Mosque showdown became both a rallying cry for the militants and a pivot point that caused many of the different jihadist groups in Pakistan to turn against their government."
• "The Scotch had been roused to the defenceless condition of their country by the alarming appearance of Thurot in Scotch waters in 1759, and had instantly with one voice raised a cry for the establishment of a national militia."