false alarm
nounDefinition of false alarm
1 : an alarm (such as a fire or burglar alarm) that is set off needlessly
2 : something causing alarm or excitement that proves to be unfounded
Examples of false alarm in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Hanabusa used the false alarm as a key camapaign issue against Ige. — Amy Lieu, Fox News, "Hawaii races: Ige ahead; Tupola, Gabbard, Case all win," 12 Aug. 2018 Bonafide started wondering about commercially available monitors after treating a child brought to the emergency room because of a false alarm. — Fox News, "Consumer baby monitors may get vital signs wrong," 21 Aug. 2018 In February, Popovich — realizing that all of these false alarms were doing his team no good — suggested that the Spurs needed to play as though Leonard was not going to return, and as though they would not be rescued by some savior. — Mike Finger, San Antonio Express-News, "In Spurs’ saga, explanations remain elusive," 4 July 2018 The Valparaiso Police Department is getting tough on businesses and homeowners who bring officers to their locations, sometimes repeatedly, with the ring of false alarms. — Amy Lavalley, Post-Tribune, "Police announce plan to get tough on false alarms," 9 May 2018 The researchers found that this swath was easily detected by infrared sensors, and estimated a 99 percent chance of detecting a robot ray with a low chance of false alarms. — David Hambling, Popular Mechanics, "How Robot Stingrays Could One Day Sink a Battleship," 3 May 2018 But those tests fail to detect many cancers, and also send up a lot of false alarms. — Melissa Healy, latimes.com, "Modified Pap tests can show early warning signs of other gynecological cancers," 22 Mar. 2018 Across New Jersey, several other towns have had to deal with a spate of false alarms and threats. — David W. Chen And Ethan Sterenfeld, New York Times, "Armed Officers Will Patrol New Jersey Town’s Schools," 20 Feb. 2018 For 38 excruciating, masturbation-free minutes, Hawaiians prepared for their imminent destruction — only to learn that the warning had been a false alarm, triggered by a state employee hitting the wrong button in a drop-down menu. — Eric Levitz, Daily Intelligencer, "The Hawaii Missile Scare Was Caused by Overly Realistic Drill," 30 Jan. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'false alarm.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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