The Collaborative International Dictionary
Signal \Sig"nal\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Signaled or Signalled; p. pr. & vb. n. Signaling or Signalling.]
To communicate by signals; as, to signal orders.
To notify by a signals; to make a signal or signals to; as, to signal a fleet to anchor.
--M. Arnold.
Wiktionary
alt. (present participle of signal English) n. 1 the use of signals in communications, especially the sending of signals in telecommunications 2 (context rail transport English) the signals and associated equipment required for their operation. vb. (present participle of signal English)
WordNet
adj. notably out of the ordinary; "the year saw one signal triumph for the Labour party"
[also: signalling, signalled]
n. any communication that encodes a message; "signals from the boat suddenly stopped" [syn: signaling, sign]
any incitement to action; "he awaited the signal to start"; "the victory was a signal for wild celebration"
an electric quantity (voltage or current or field strength) whose modulation represents coded information about the source from which it comes
[also: signalling, signalled]
v. communicate silently and non-verbally by signals or signs; "He signed his disapproval with a dismissive hand gesture"; "The diner signaled the waiters to bring the menu" [syn: sign, signalize, signalise]
be a signal for or a symptom of; "These symptoms indicate a serious illness"; "Her behavior points to a severe neurosis"; "The economic indicators signal that the euro is undervalued" [syn: bespeak, betoken, indicate, point]
[also: signalling, signalled]
See signal
Wikipedia
In contract theory, signaling (or signalling: see American and British English differences) is the idea that one party (termed the agent) credibly conveys some information about itself to another party (the principal). For example, in Michael Spence's job-market signalling model, (potential) employees send a signal about their ability level to the employer by acquiring education credentials. The informational value of the credential comes from the fact that the employer believes the credential is positively correlated with having greater ability and difficult for low ability employees to obtain. Thus the credential enables the employer to reliably distinguish low ability workers from high ability workers.
Usage examples of "signalling".
The twelve-pounder carriages were rammed into the burning gate, then Chinese Lights, signalling confections of nitre, sulphur, antimony and orpiment, were tossed among the carriages to encourage the blaze.
Above the hills an orange ray quivered on the thin clouds and died away: Ratal Cosmodrome was signalling to someone again.
On the 4th he was within signalling distance of Buller, and on the right rear of the Boer position.
It tried signalling, telling the outside universe of its plight, but the signals just seemed to loop back and it found itself receiving its own signal a picosecond after it had sent it.
He broke off as her communicator beeped again, signalling the authorization.
Elsa Ramerez, a tiny woman with short, curly dark hair, tanned limbs, scooted around handing things to the photographer, signalling the rest of the crew, grabbing up bottled water or whatever other task was snapped out at her.
Here and there, someone had tried to pry one of the barriers away, leaving a corner curled up, and everywhere red and green pinlights glowed in corners, signalling wideawake security systems.
The porter, quick to cover his miscalculation, headed back towards Ballard, whose arm was still signalling.
His tongue, fittingly depicted as an obsidian knife, juts out hungrily, signalling his need for the nourishment of human blood and hearts.
Among the things he remembered with particular sharpness, once they had crossed into New England and the Talisman began to glow again, signalling the return of normal time - or perhaps the return of time itself to Jack Sawyer - were the faces of people peering into the back seat of the El Dorado (people in parking lots, a sailor and an ox-faced girl in a convertible at a stoplight in a sunny little town in Iowa, a skinny Ohio kid wearing Breaking Away-style bicycle gear) in order to see if maybe Mick Jagger or Frank Sinatra had decided to pay them a call.
The set-up amounted to a bracket: the only part of the Lulu Belle that neither of them could see was a blank wall at the rear and they could see each other at a distance of some sixty yards with a fairly wide signalling vector if the VW had to move around.
I've never seen Ferris move so fast, though he didn't seem to hurry: he just got a lot more done, calling people out of the woodwork and signalling London and Monck, telling me to get to the Cedar Grove on South River Drive and make certain I was clean when I got there.
In sea-towers the complement has always been three since the deplorable business in the Eddystone, when one keeper died, and the survivor, signalling in vain for relief, was compelled to live for days with the dead body.
His hands were held straight up over his head, as if he were signalling that the extra point was good.
A poet might have seen something dramatic and beautiful in those spider lines cleaving the air, but Bush merely saw a couple of ropes, and the white flag down in the launch signalling that all was clear for hoisting.