distress call
Americannoun
-
a prearranged communication code sign indicating that the sender is in a situation of peril, distress, or the like, as SOS, Mayday, etc.
-
a communication prompted by or indicating distress.
The hospital sent out distress calls for all available stocks of the antitoxin.
Etymology
Origin of distress call
First recorded in 1910–15
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The five-man crew raised a distress call at about 18:00 BST on 29 August.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
The ship began its journey in mid-afternoon and a distress call was received about eight hours later, Edghill said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026
Even before a less-than-successful promotional push for “American Girl” led Day to make a distress call to her manager, “we both knew the conversation was coming,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2026
Officials received a distress call around 11:30 a.m.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
The Major Maintainer was blinking emergency-green and fast, but the code was plain enough for even me to recognize the Spider distress call and for a second I felt just sick.
From The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
