Forms: 4–7 alarme, 6–7 all arme, 7 all-arm, all’ army, 6– alarm. Also: 4 alarom, 6 alarome, 7 allarum, 6– alarum. [a. OFr. alarme, a. It. allarme = all’ arme! ‘To (the) arms!’ orig. the call summoning to arms, and thus, in languages that adopted it, a mere interjection; but soon used in all as the name of the call or summons. Erroneously taken in the 17th c. for an English combination all arm! and so written; cf. similar treatment of alamode and alamort. From the earliest period there was a variant alarum due to rolling the r in prolonging the final syllable of the call, now restricted to an alarm-signal; as the peal or chime of a warning bell or clock, or the mechanism producing it. Hence also, by aphesis, LARUM.]
I. As a phrase.
† 1. int. An exclamation meaning ‘To arms!’ Obs.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXIII. 92. ‘Alarme! Alarme!’ quaþ þat Lorde.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froissart, I. lxxxviii. 111. He began to cry a larum, treason, treason.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. li. 14. Which with a corage shall crie Alarum Alarum agaynst the.
1600. Holland, Livy, 331 (R.). Showting as he could, crying al’arme, help help citizens.
† 2. adverbially, with ring, etc. Obs.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froissart, I. lxxx. 101. It was commaunded to sounde the watche bell alarm, and euery man to be armed. Ibid., I. ccccxi. 717. The townes all about range their belles alarum.
† 3. quasi-sb. The call to arms, whether by using the exclamation alarme! or by any equivalent means. With cry, lilt, sound, blow, strike, etc. Obs.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. Poems, B. 1207. Loude alarom vpon launde lulted was þenne.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froissart, 1. xviii. 20. Often tymes in the day there was cryed alarum.
1580. Baret, Alv., A 284. To blowe alarme, Bellicum canere.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., V. ii. 3. When the angrie Trumpet sounds alarum. Ibid. (1594), Rich. III., IV. iv. 148. Strike alarum, drummes!
II. As sb. with pl.
4. A call to arms; a signal calling upon men to arm.
1548. Hall, Chron. (1809), 680. When the alarme came to Calice, euery man made to horse and harnes.
1600. Holland, Livy, III. (1659), 81. The al’army was given on all hands: and no cry heard but ‘Arme,’ ‘Arme.’
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon. (1634), 130. As if the Drum did sound an all-arm.
1705. J. Robins, Hero of Age, II. ii. 3. Now first is beat the General Alarm, Now sounds to Horse.
1711. Pope, Rape Lock, V. 48. And all Olympus rings with loud alarms.
1864. Skeat, trans. Uhland’s Poems, 21. And when th’ alarum thrills the air, And beacons on the mountains flare.
b. A message or news of approaching hostility.
1812. Byron, Childe Har., II. lxxii. Tambourgi! thy larum gives promise of war.
1815. Southey, Roder., XX. 3. From east and west … the breathless scouts Bring swift alarums in.
5. A warning sound of any kind to give notice of danger, or to arouse or attract attention; esp. a loud and hurried peal rung out by a tocsin or alarm bell; or a chime rung out by a clock to awaken sleepers.
1592. No-body & Some-b. (1878), 328. Sound out a sodaine and a shrill Alarum.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VII. xxxviii. (1632), 397. Awaked with the suddaine Allarum.
1642. Jer. Taylor, God’s Judg., I. I. vii. 14. The frogges … filling every corner of his land sounded him an alarme.
1846. Lytton, Lucr. (1853), 185. A larum loud enough to startle the whole court from its stillness.
1842. Macaulay, Lays, Armada. At once the loud alarum clashed from all her reeling spires.
6. fig. a. A warning. b. An incitement (obs.).
1584. Lodge (title), An Alarum against Usurers.
1620. Shelton, Don Quix., IV. xiii. 103. A kind of black Meat, called Caviary … a great Alarum to the Bottle.
a. 1670. Hacket, in Walcott’s Life (1865), 169. Curious music upon costly instruments is an admirable alarm for devotion.
1686. W. de Britaine, Hum. Prud., § 16. 75. Your Wisdom will be but an Alarm to them never to come unprovided.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VIII. lxiv. 91. It is an alarum rung in the ears of a careless generation.
7. The apparatus or mechanism that sounds the alarm; also fig. Usually alarum.
1586. Bright, Melanch., xiii. 66. Automaticall instruments as clockes, watches and larums.
1655. Marq. Worcester, Cent. Inv., lxxii. § 2. If a stranger open it, it setteth an Alarm a-going, which the stranger cannot stop from running out.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., 38. Thou hast an alarum in thy breast.
1788. Wesley, Wks., 1872, VII. 69. I procured an alarum, which waked me the next morning at seven.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., viii. (ed. 3), 59. The various kinds of alarums connected with clocks and watches.
8. A warning of danger of any kind; especially one given in such a way as to startle or arouse the unwary; esp. in the phr. to give or take the alarm.
1591. Garrard, Art of Warre, 76. In giving Alarome to the enimie.
1594. Nashe, Vnfort. Trav., 13. What did I now but one day made a false alarum in the quarter where they lay.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, I. 8. The towne took the Alarum before I ment it.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. I. 29. [Words] which gave the first alarum to the Duke to apprehend his own Ruin.
1772. Junius Lett., lxviii. 355. Your natural benevolence took the alarm.
1867. Lady Herbert, Cradle L., viii. 215. The alarm was given that the Bedouins were upon them.
Mod. It proved to be a false alarm.
9. Fencing. ‘A step or stamp made on the ground with the advancing foot.’ Chambers, Cycl. Supp.
1579. Gosson, Apol. (Arb.), 75. Players haue chosen such a Champion as when I giue the Allarm winnowes his weapon.
1707. Sir W. Hope, Fencing, iv. 102, in Chambers, Cycl. Supp. The motion of the sword-hand may in this case be attended with the appel or alarm of the advanced foot.
10. A loud noise or disturbance, of such a kind as to startle or perturb; din. arch.
1523. Earl Surrey, in Ellis’s Orig. Lett., I. 77, I. 217. The horses of his company brake lowse … in suche nombre that it caused a marvelous alarome.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. i. 131. Though it passe your patience & mine to endure her lowd alarums.
1684. T. Burnet, Theor. Earth, II. 61. You see what disorders in nature, and what an alarum, the eruption of one fiery mountain is capable to make.
1820. Keats, Hyperion, III. 105. What divinity Makes this alarum in the elements?
† 11. A sudden or unexpected attack; necessitating a rush to arms; a surprise; an assault. Obs.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1021/2. Their men readie at all times to serue in euerie alarum and skirmish.
1605. Shaks., Macb., V. ii. 4. Their deere causes Would to the bleeding, and the grim Alarme Excite the mortified man.
1660. Hexham, Dutch Dict., Een Storm, an assaulting, or an Al-arme.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., II. 567. The doubtful nations watch his arms, With terror each expecting his alarms.
12. A state of surprise with fear or terror, suddenly excited by apprehension of danger; excitement caused by danger apprehended.
1587. D. Fenner, Def. Ministers, C 4. If Maist. D. Bridg. had not hitte on this cause of allarum.
1602. Shaks., Haml., II. ii. 532. A blanket in th’ Alarum of feare caught vp.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 11, ¶ 5. Such Fears and Alarms as they were there tormented with.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., III. 599. Awe in each eye, alarm in every face.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxiii. (1853), 235. The alarms of her guide made more impression on the Countess’s mind.
13. Comb. and Attrib. as alarm shock, alarm signal. Also alar(u)m-clock, -watch, one with an apparatus that can be set to ring loudly at any particular hour, so as to awaken sleepers, or excite attention; alar(u)m-gauge, an appliance attached to a steam-engine to give warning of a dangerous pressure of steam or deficiency of water in the boiler; alarm-gun, -cannon, a gun fired to give notice of danger, or to call to vigilance; alarm-note, the note of a bird when startled; alarm-word, a watch word. Also ALARM-BELL, -POST, q.v.
1801. Southey, Thal., XII. xxiv. Wks. IV. 433. Over the surface of the reeling Earth, The alarum shock was felt.
1665. Pepys, Diary, 14 July (1876), III. 193. Up betimes by the helpe of a larum watch.
1678. T. Herbert, Mem. Chas. I. (1815), 148 (T.). You shall have a Gold Alarm-Watch, which, as there may be cause, shall awake you.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., V. xxiii. 592. A man-of-war in New York Bay fired alarm-cannon.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 163. If you should disturb the blackbird … he makes the meadow ring with his alarm-note.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, I. 102. Crying the alarm-word of the town.
