wake-up call

noun

1. a telephone call that wakes a person from sleep

2. an event that alerts people to a danger or difficulty

Idioms and Phrases

A portentous event, report, or situation that brings an issue to immediate attention. For example, The rise in unemployment has given a wake-up call to state governments, or The success of the online subscription is a wake-up call to publishers. This metaphoric term originated in the second half of the 1900s for a telephone call arranged in advance to awaken a sleeper, especially in a hotel. Its figurative use dates from about 1990.

Example Sentences

It was beneficial, he believed that they had had something of a wake-up call and were now taking charge of their own defence.

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It was "an electric shock, a wake-up call about what changing our diets can mean for intensive animal farming and for deforestation", said the 63-year-old retiree, who lives in Ermenonville, an hour from Paris.

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It was "a wake-up call for the town", she says.

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But to her estranged husband, it was a wake-up call to "just how far things had spiralled out of control".

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The event was widely seen as a wake-up call to the dangers of methane and underground natural gas storage.

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