false alarm

Language: en

Meaning: (literal)Awarningsignal(such as the call ofsentry, the ringing of abell, or the shriek of asiren) whichturns outto have been givenerroneously.1895,G. A. Henty, chapter 9, inWulf the Saxon:"Then, if they rise, shout the alarm at the top of your voice [...] but be careful not to rouse the camp by afalse alarm, for if you do, instead of gaining credit we shall become the jest of the whole force."2013February 25, David Epstein, “Pistorius: The Man, The Myth”, inSports Illustrated, retrieved18 April 2015:Pistorius explained that a security alarm in his house had gone off the previous night, and that he had taken a gun downstairs to investigate what turned out to be afalse alarm.; (idiomatic,by extension)Athingoroccurrencewhich initially causesfear,distress, etc. but which is subsequently recognized as being no cause forconcern.1819December 20 (indicated as1820),Walter Scott, chapter XIII, inIvanhoe; a Romance.[…], volume I, Edinburgh:[…]Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co.[…],→OCLC,page265:"This may be afalse alarm, or a forged letter," said De Bracy.1843December 19,Charles Dickens, “Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits.”, inA Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London:Chapman & Hall,[…],→OCLC,page70:The terrible announcement that the baby had been taken in the act of putting a doll's frying-pan into his mouth, and was more than suspected of having swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a wooden platter! The immense relief of finding this afalse alarm!1905,Fergus Hume, chapter 6, inThe Secret Passage:Cuthbert had often been summoned to her dying bed, only to find that she was alive and well. He expected that this summons would be anotherfalse alarm.2000January 9, “A Night To Remember”, inNewsweek, retrieved18 April 2015:Robert Swanson [...] expected civilization to melt down on Jan. 1, 2000 [...] He's not sure yet that Y2K was afalse alarm.; (archaic,idiomatic)Apersonwhopretendsto be moreaccomplishedor athingthat seems to be of higherqualitythan is later found to be the case.Antonym:real deal1911,William MacLeod Raine, chapter 22, inMavericks:"I don't believe you're a bank robber, at all! I don't believe you are even a rustler! You're afalse alarm!"1912,G. Harvey Ralphson, chapter 2, inBoy Scouts in a Submarine:"He's an oldfalse alarm, anyway. I'll bet he never heard a real gun go off!"1913,Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 5, inThe Iron Trail:"I had a good job, putting in a power plant for his nibs"—he indicated the retreating Gordon with a disrespectful jerk of the thumb—"but I quit [...] Do you think I'd work for this four-flusher if you were in the country?" [...]"You think Gordon is afalse alarm?"1921,P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 4, inJill the Reckless:"I only came over here to see that darnedfalse alarmof a play of mine put on."

Examples:

EN: - Just a false alarm, sir.
ES: - Sólo una falsa alarma, señor.
EN: Well, this was so to speak, in a way, a false alarm.
ES: Bueno, fue... por decirlo así... en cierta manera... una falsa alarma.
EN: I told you, a false alarm.
ES: Una falsa alarma.
EN: Mannion is a false alarm.
ES: Mannion es una falsa alarma.
EN: "'Mannion, false alarm, says Jones."
ES: Mannion, falsa alarma, según Jones.
EN: I'm a false alarm, am I?
ES: Soy una falsa alarma, ¿verdad?
EN: Yeah, I guess a lot of guys think I'm a false alarm! Oh, no!
ES: Supongo que muchos piensan que soy una falsa alarma.
EN: A false alarm, am I?
ES: Así que soy una falsa alarma.
EN: That's the kind of a false alarm I am.
ES: Soy esa clase de falsa alarma.
EN: - What'd I say? Everybody knows Eddie Miller's a false alarm. That ain't no secret.
ES: ¡Todos saben que es un fraude!
EN: -Spread a false alarm, that's all.
ES: - Dieron falsa alarma. Es todo.
EN: Well, it turned out to be a false alarm... but she called me up on the telephone last night... and said that there was someone hanging around, that...
ES: Bueno, resulto ser una falsa alarma, pero me llamó por teléfono anoche... y me dijo que había alguien merodeando, y que...
EN: - Please, please. Release culprit and accept apologies for false alarm.
ES: Suelten a culpable y acepten disculpas por falsa alarma.
EN: Hello, Jim. Yes, false alarm.
ES: Jim, es una falsa alarma.
EN: - What was it, a false alarm?
ES: - ¿Qué fue, una falsa alarma?

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).

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