Meaning
A sudden warning or intimation of danger, risk, or ill fortune. (Often pluralized.)
Examples
Alarm bells were going off in my head when I saw the panicked expression on her face.
The new report set alarm bells ringing among the board members because it forecasts a large decrease in enrollment.
A: “Her new boyfriend’s anger management issues don’t seem to be setting off an alarm bell for her.” B: “Yikes, the situation is worse than I thought.”
Origin
Synonyms
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What does the idiom ‘alarm bell’ mean?
The idiom ‘alarm bell’ means “to deal with a difficult situation without being harmed or damaged”
How do you use ‘alarm bell’ in a sentence?
Example usage of idiom ‘alarm bell’: Newspapers have weathered the storm of online information by providing news online themselves.