Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The sounding of a bugle early in the morning to awaken and summon people in a camp or garrison.
  • noun This bugle call or its equivalent.
  • noun The first military formation of the day.
  • noun A signal to get up out of bed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Milit. and naval, the beat of a drum, bugle-sound, or other signal given about break of day, to give notice that it is time for the soldiers or sailors to rise and for the sentinels to forbear challenging.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mil.) The beat of drum, or bugle blast, about break of day, to give notice that it is time for the soldiers to rise, and for the sentinels to forbear challenging.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun military The sounding of a bugle or drum early in the morning to awaken soldiers.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a signal to get up in the morning; in the military it is a bugle call at sunrise
  • noun (military) signal to wake up

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of French réveillez, second person pl. imperative of réveiller, to wake, from Old French resveiller : re-, re- + esveiller, to awake (from Vulgar Latin *exvigilāre : Latin ex-, ex- + Latin vigilāre, to awake, from vigil, awake; see weg- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French réveillez, imperative form of réveiller ("to wake") .

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Examples

  • The guns and ammunition had long ago passed into the hands of the Japs, and when at last the reveille from a Japanese bugle woke up the garrison completely, there was nothing to be done but to grind their teeth with rage and submit to the inevitable.

    Banzai! by Parabellum Ferdinand Heinrich Grautoff 1903

  • Each cadet in the entire corps rose at the tap of a drum -- "reveille" -- at 5.45 A.M. At the first sound of reveille every young man sprang from his bed.

    Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point 1895

  • Bugles called reveille, and the piquets who had guarded the sleeping army around Aragaum cleared their muskets by loosing off shots.

    Sharpe's Fortress Cornwell, Bernard 1999

  • It was a long while afterward before a bugler blew the first call to reveille, which is the "Army alarm clock," the signal to rise.

    Uncle Sam's Boys in the Ranks or, Two Recruits in the United States Army 1895

  • Ninny Moulin on her right hand, presided at the repast, called a reveille-matin (wake-morning), generously offered by Jacques to his companions in pleasure.

    The Wandering Jew — Volume 04 Eug��ne Sue 1830

  • The Bacchanal Queen, having Sleepinbuff and Rose-Pompon opposite her, and Ninny Moulin on her right hand, presided at the repast, called a reveille-matin (wake-morning), generously offered by Jacques to his companions in pleasure.

    The Wandering Jew — Complete Eug��ne Sue 1830

  • A person should not be charged with both disorderly conduct and assault if the disorderly conduct consisted in making the assault, or with both a failure to report for a routine scheduled duty, such as reveille, and with absence without leave if the failure to report occurred during the period for which he is charge with absence without leave.

    EXECUTIVE ORDER 10214 1951

  • It did not take five minutes to carry the suggestion into effect and a golf stick thumping "reveille" under Wheedles 'bed effectually brought him back from dreams of Annapolis.

    Peggy Stewart: Navy Girl at Home

  • The campaign hat, while still _de rigueur_ for the less formal functions of army society, such as reveille and mess, is rapidly going out of date.

    The Stars and Stripes The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919 United States. Army. American Expeditionary Forces

  • At day-break the regiment was roused from slumber by the soul-stirring sounds of the "reveille" which reverberated through the dark pine woods of the "sacred soil."

    Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 2, February 1886 Various

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