Definitions

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

  • noun Plural form of alarum.
  • verb archaic (rare) Third-person singular simple present indicative form of alarum.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The days went on, with plenty of what Shakespeare called alarums and excursions in the neighbourhood of the great fort, the enemy being constantly making desultory attacks, but only to find Graves's boys and

    Fix Bay'nets The Regiment in the Hills George Manville Fenn 1870

  • If the Royalists had, in truth, 'reckoned on 8000 in the North,' or if York had been in danger, soldiers, and not 'alarums' would have been sent into Yorkshire.

    The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886 Various

  • 'The scene,' says Spedding, 'does not change; but' alarums 'are heard, and afterwards a' retreat, 'and on the same field over which that great army has this moment passed, fresh and full of hope, re-appears, with tidings that all is lost, the same man who last left the stage to follow and fight in it. [

    Shakespearean Tragedy Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth 1893

  • Concentrating sufficient forces for a cross-channel invasion in 1943 would be exceedingly difficult, and the absence of any strategic consensus suggested that further “alarums and excursions” would arise.

    Between War and Peace Col. Matthew Moten 2011

  • Mr. Holder's voter ID alarums are one more reason he's earning a reputation for politicized, partial justice.

    Holder's Voter ID Fraud 2011

  • Concentrating sufficient forces for a cross-channel invasion in 1943 would be exceedingly difficult, and the absence of any strategic consensus suggested that further “alarums and excursions” would arise.

    Between War and Peace Col. Matthew Moten 2011

  • There were plenty of alarums and crises in Late Roman Britain that could conceivably have resulted in some or all of a fort garrison leaving their base, temporarily or permanently.

    Birdoswald Roman Fort: post-Roman activity on the site Carla 2010

  • Certainly we need now to recognise that we have not won a general election and that there is still a long road ahead with many alarums and excursions along the way and lots of hard work.

    Brown: I'm a Gutless Bully 2007

  • Certainly we need now to recognise that we have not won a general election and that there is still a long road ahead with many alarums and excursions along the way and lots of hard work.

    Archive 2007-10-07 2007

  • Various alarums and excursions about layoffs in LJ-land.

    Don't spill . . . jhetley 2009

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