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noun
a false report of a fire in progress to a fire department.
something that excites unfounded alarm or expectation: Rumors of an impending transit strike proved to be a false alarm.
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Origin of false alarm First recorded in 1570–80
Words nearby false alarm fall wind ,
Falmouth ,
FALN ,
false ,
false acacia ,
false alarm ,
false aloe ,
false anemia ,
false aneurysm ,
false ankylosis ,
false aralia
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022
Words related to false alarm
How to use false alarm in a sentence Last year, Voice of San Diego reviewed dispatch records and found evidence that false alarm s were more common than the company’s marketing materials show.
This flawed technology threatens civil liberties and public safety, generating false alarm s that have ended in escalating violence between police and community members.
In fact, if you tested everyone in the US tomorrow with over-the-counter tests, the large majority of positive results—maybe nine out of 10—would be false alarm s.
One reason is that owing to a history of false alarm s about tornado warnings, some people didn’t take shelter.
Last year, however, a Voice of San Diego review of dispatch records suggested that false alarm s were more common than advertised.
And no issue should be defined by its outliers because it paints a false picture.
On Christmas Day, sometime after dark, a hideous fire overtook the venue: 100 firefighters, 33 fire trucks, a four-alarm blaze.
He has contributed to a false picture of law enforcement based on isolated injustices.
The airline industry objects that sometimes these deployable recorders can pop out without cause, spreading needless alarm.
“Nothing else to do” was the most common response for why people chose to go to The Ball, though that rang a little false to me.
Some of the alarm returned, however, when the creature attempted to climb up by his own ladder.
There is cause for alarm when they bring one hundred and ten ships into these seas without any means of resistance on our part.
But the sheer quantity of the inflated currency and false money forces prices higher still.
Her face wore a look of distress, almost of alarm; she kept her place, but her eyes gave Bernard a mute welcome.
The public eye, ever watchful and timid, waits scarcely for the show of danger to take alarm and withdraw its favour.
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British Dictionary definitions for false alarm
noun
a needless alarm given in error or with intent to deceive
an occasion on which danger is perceived but fails to materialize
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
Other Idioms and Phrases with false alarm
A warning signal that is groundless, made either by mistake or as a deliberate deception. For example, The rumor that we were all going to get fired was just a false alarm , or Setting off a false alarm is a criminal offense . This expression, first recorded in 1579, today is often used for a report of a nonexistent fire.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.