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Alarm bell   /əlˈɑrm bɛl/   Listen
noun
Alarm  n.  
1.
A summons to arms, as on the approach of an enemy. "Arming to answer in a night alarm."
2.
Any sound or information intended to give notice of approaching danger; a warning sound to arouse attention; a warning of danger. "Sound an alarm in my holy mountain."
3.
A sudden attack; disturbance; broil. (R.) "These home alarms." "Thy palace fill with insults and alarms."
4.
Sudden surprise with fear or terror excited by apprehension of danger; in the military use, commonly, sudden apprehension of being attacked by surprise. "Alarm and resentment spread throughout the camp."
5.
A mechanical contrivance for awaking persons from sleep, or rousing their attention; an alarum.
Alarm bell, a bell that gives notice on danger.
Alarm clock or Alarm watch, a clock or watch which can be so set as to ring or strike loudly at a prearranged hour, to wake from sleep, or excite attention.
Alarm gauge, a contrivance attached to a steam boiler for showing when the pressure of steam is too high, or the water in the boiler too low.
Alarm post, a place to which troops are to repair in case of an alarm.
Synonyms: Fright; affright; terror; trepidation; apprehension; consternation; dismay; agitation; disquiet; disquietude. Alarm, Fright, Terror, Consternation. These words express different degrees of fear at the approach of danger. Fright is fear suddenly excited, producing confusion of the senses, and hence it is unreflecting. Alarm is the hurried agitation of feeling which springs from a sense of immediate and extreme exposure. Terror is agitating and excessive fear, which usually benumbs the faculties. Consternation is overwhelming fear, and carries a notion of powerlessness and amazement. Alarm agitates the feelings; terror disorders the understanding and affects the will; fright seizes on and confuses the sense; consternation takes possession of the soul, and subdues its faculties. See Apprehension.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Alarm bell" Quotes from Famous Books



... in armies against one another, but even on the march the armies would begin attacking each other, the ranks would be broken and the soldiers would fall on each other, stabbing and cutting, biting and devouring each other. The alarm bell was ringing all day long in the towns; men rushed together, but why they were summoned and who was summoning them no one knew. The most ordinary trades were abandoned, because everyone proposed his own ideas, his own improvements, ...
— Crime and Punishment • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... staying with George Peabody, equally well known in England and the United States as a philanthropist, "one of the sweetest and gentlest of beings." "As we were sitting after dinner, the children said there was a fire somewhere. They heard the alarm bell, and saw a red light in the sky. Presently we saw flames. Mr. Peabody was uneasy, and I walked out with him to see. Between the house here and the town lies the Common or City Park. As we crossed this, the signs became more ominous. We made our way into the principal street through ...
— The Life of Froude • Herbert Paul
... doorway, rang down her faltering sentence as with the clash of an alarm bell. I saw Ronald—in talk with Miss McBean but a few yards away—spin round on his heel and turn slowly back on me with a face of sheer bewilderment. There was no time to conceal myself. To reach either the tea-room or the card-room, I must traverse twelve feet of open floor. ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 20 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... to see whence came this cry, which, twice again renewed, remained twice unanswered, and was immediately followed by a report and the flash of a firearm: at the same moment the sentinel on duty on the tower blew his bugle, another set going the alarm bell, and the cries, "To arms, to arms!" and "Treason, ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - MARY STUART--1587 • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... An alarm bell rang and the port slammed shut, literally in Kerk's face. Only his Pyrran reflexes saved him from being ...
— Deathworld • Harry Harrison


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