Forms: 6 larom(e, larowme, 8 larrom, -um, 6– larum. [Aphetic form of ALARUM.]
1. A call to arms, a battle-cry; news of an enemy’s approach; any sound to warn of danger. † Hence (rarely) a sudden attack.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Eph., p. xiv. What larum so euer happeneth, with this buckeler it shalbe vaynquished.
1555. Eden, Decades, 56. They fiercely assayled theyr enemyes with a larome.
1555. Proctor, Wyat’s Rebell., D iij b. In the night … there happened a larom, sundrie criinge: treason, Treason.
1559. Fabyan’s Chron., VII. 707. Sir Thomas Poinynges … cried a newe larum, and sette on the Frenchmen.
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. iv. 9. Then shall we heare their Larum, & they Ours.
1755. in G. Sheldon, Hist. Deerfield, Mass. (1895), I. 638. We fired several larrums and the great gun at Fort Dummer was shot.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 569. The first larum of the cock’s shrill throat May prove a trumpet, summoning your ear To horrid sounds of hostile feet.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. 72. Tambourgi! Tambourgi! thy ’larum afar Gives hope to the valiant, and promise of war.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Fr. Wines & Pol., vii. 100. The drums and larums which kept all Paris awake.
1847. Lytton, Lucretia (1853), 185. A larum [of a door-bell] loud enough to startle the whole court.
fig. 1650. R. Stapylton, Strada’s Low C. Warres, I. 7. Warned by his disease, that still rung the larum of death.
b. In wider sense: A tumultuous noise; a hubbub, uproar.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, cxxix. 472. Then the crye and larum began.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., I. i. 147. Remaineth nought but … with low’d Larums [to] welcome them to Rome.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. VII. 5. Thay crie a larum, that [etc.].
1800. Coleridge, Wallenstein, I. vii. But whence arose this larum in the camp?
1840. Thackeray, Paris Sk.-bk. (1869), 151. His invention has not made so much noise and larum in the world as some others.
1858. G. Macdonald, Phantastes, xix. in Wks. Fancy & Imag. (1871), VI. 96. The continually renewed larum of a landrail.
fig. 1593. R. Harvey, Philad., 1. I will be so bold, as answere your larum, touching the history of mighty Brute.
† c. An uneasy condition. = ALARM 12. Obs.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. v. 73. The peaking Curnuto her husband … dwelling in a continual larum of ielousie.
† 2. An apparatus attached to a clock or watch, to produce a ringing sound at any fixed hour. Obs.
1586. Bright, Melanch., xiii. 66. Automaticall instruments as clockes, watches, & larums.
1607. Dekker, Whore Babylon, Wks. 1873, II. 264. What houre is this? does not my larum strike? This watch goes false.
1648. Bp. Wilkins, Math. Magick, Dædalus, iii. 17. That larum … which … would both wake a man, and of it self light a candle for him at any set hower of the night.
1692. Locke, Educ., xiv. Wks. 1727, III. 6. Others … have set their Stomachs by a constant usage, like Larums to call on them for four or five.
1807. Southey, in Rem. H. K. White (1819), I. 34. He would … rise again to his work at five, at the call of a larum, which he had fixed to a Dutch clock in his chamber.
transf. and fig. 1661. Cowley, Disc. Govt. O. Cromwell, in Verses & Ess. (1687), 70. There needs no Noise at all t’ awaken Sin Th’ Adulterer and the Thief his Larum has within.
1691. Shadwell, Scourers, I. ii. Dram. Wks. (1720), 326. Will the larum of your tongue never lie down.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 11, ¶ 1. She had often an Inclination to interrupt him, but could find no Opportunity ’till the Larum ceased of its self.
1778. G. White, Selborne, 9 Sept. By this [crowing] he has been distinguished in all ages as the countryman’s clock or larum.
3. attrib. and Comb., as larum-call, -clock, -watch. Also LARUM-BELL.
1683. Lond. Gaz., No. 1846/4. A large Silver Larum Watch with a Chain. Ibid. (1697), No. 3251/4. Lost … a Larum Clock in a little Box.
1821. Joanna Baillie, Metr. Leg., Ghost Fadon, xxii. Till they heard a bugle’s larum call.
