The Collaborative International Dictionary
Alarm \A*larm"\ ([.a]*l[aum]rm"), n. [F. alarme, It. all' arme to arms ! fr. L. arma, pl., arms. See Arms, and cf. Alarum.]
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A summons to arms, as on the approach of an enemy.
Arming to answer in a night alarm.
--Shak. -
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.
--Joel ii. 1. -
A sudden attack; disturbance; broil. [R.] ``These home alarms.''
--Shak.Thy palace fill with insults and alarms.
--Pope. -
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.
--Macaulay. -
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 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.
Syn: Fright; affright; terror; trepidation; apprehension; consternation; dismay; agitation; disquiet; disquietude.
Usage: 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.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (&lit alarm bell English) 2 (context figuratively usually in plural English) A sudden awareness of danger.
WordNet
n. the sound of an alarm (usually a bell) [syn: tocsin]
Usage examples of "alarm bell".
The alarm bell would be rung by the shorting of any of those wires to earth, as when someone touched them, or by the cutting of any of the wires.
He's the store's oldest employee-he lived only two blocks from the store-and he'd been awakened by the sound of the alarm bell.
We were almost at the north gate when the alarm bell rang, breaking the silence with a hideous insistence.
Rhodan could not answer that question for an alarm bell began to ring loudly.
The alarm bell rang, and the steel shutters slammed down once more.
The thing that most struck him, however, was the rope of the great alarm bell on the roof, which hung down in a corner of the room on the right-hand side of the fireplace.