To call to arms for defense; give notice of danger to; rouse to vigilance and exertions for safety: as, alarm the watch.
To surprise with apprehension of danger; disturb with sudden fear; fill with anxiety by the prospect of evil.
To give an alarm.
noun.
A summons to arms, as on the approach of an enemy; hence, any sound, outcry, or information intended to give notice of approaching danger.
noun.
A hostile attack; a tumult; a broil; a disturbance.
noun.
A sudden fear or painful suspense excited by an apprehension of danger; apprehension; fright: as, there is nothing in his illness to cause alarm.
noun.
A warning sound; a signal for attention; an urgent call, summons, or notification.
noun.
A self-acting contrivance of any kind used to call attention, rouse from sleep, warn of danger, etc.
noun.
Alarm, Apprehension, Fright, Terror, Dismay, Consternation, Panic, affright, agitation, flutter, perturbation. These words all express degrees of fear in view of possible or certain, perhaps imminent, danger.
noun.
Apprehension is the lowest degree of fear; the mind takes hold of the idea of danger, and without alarm considers the best way of meeting it.
noun.
Alarm is the next stage; by derivation it is the alarum or summons to arms. The feelings are agitated in view of sudden or just-discovered danger to one's self or others. Generally its effect upon the mind is like that of apprehension; it energizes rather than overpowers the mental faculties.
noun.
Fright, terror, and dismay are higher and perhaps equal degrees of fear; their difference is in kind and in effect.
noun.
Fright affects especially the nerves and senses, being generally the effect of sudden fear.
noun.
Terror may be a later form of fright, or independent and as sudden; it overpowers the understanding and unmans one.
noun.
Dismay appals or breaks down the courage and hope, and therefore, as suggested by its derivation, the disposition to do anything to ward off the peril; what dismays one may be the failure or loss of his chosen means of defense.
noun.
Fright and terror are often the effect of undefined fears, as in superstition, and are especially used with reference to physical fear.
noun.
Consternation overwhelms the mental faculties by the suddenness or the utterly unexpected greatness of the danger.
noun.
Panic is a peculiar form of fear; it is sudden, demoralizing, a temporary madness of fear, altogether out of proportion to its cause; there may even be no cause discoverable. It is the fear of a mass of people, or, figuratively, of animals.