Other forms: decried, decrying, decries
To decry is to condemn something openly. Decry the decision.
It is public by definition, since a private objection is not decrying anything. To decry originally meant to cry down a coin, declaring it no longer worth its face.
1verbdecryTo condemn something openly.
“Every editorial decried the plan and it went ahead.”
decry is an action.
Old French descrier, to cry down; it first meant declaring a coin devalued by public proclamation.
Old French
descrier — to shout
Middle French
decrier — to denigrate; depreciate
English, today
decry
C. 1600, from Middle French decrier (“to denigrate; depreciate”), from Old French descrier (“to shout”) (modern décrier). a doublet of descry. The pejorative meaning had not been present in the Middle English loan, but it was present in the French word from at least the 13th century, with a meaning of "to denigrate; depreciate; to announce the depreciation or suppression of a currency", presumably from the interpretation of de- as meaning "down, inferior".
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA