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  • early-warning system
    early-warning system
    noun
    a network of radar installations designed to detect enemy aircraft or missiles in time for the effective deployment of defense systems.
  • early warning system
    early warning system
    noun
    a network of radar and communications units intended to detect at the earliest possible moment an attack by enemy aircraft or missiles

early-warning system

American  
[ur-lee wawr-ning] / ˈɜr li ˈwɔr nɪŋ /

noun

  1. Military. a network of radar installations designed to detect enemy aircraft or missiles in time for the effective deployment of defense systems.

  2. any series of steps established to spot potential problems.

early warning system British  

noun

  1. a network of radar and communications units intended to detect at the earliest possible moment an attack by enemy aircraft or missiles

  2. anything that gives advance notice of something

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of early-warning system

First recorded in 1945–50

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.