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Webster 1913 Edition


Tocsin

Toc′sin

,
Noun.
[F., fr. OF.
toquier
to touch, F.
toquer
(originally, a dialectic form of F.
toucher
) +
seint
(for
sein
) a bell, LL.
signum
, fr. L.
signum
a sign, signal. See
Touch
, and
Sign
.]
An alarm bell, or the ringing of a bell for the purpose of alarm.
The loud
tocsin
tolled their last alarm.
Campbell.

Webster 1828 Edition


Tocsin

TOC'SIN

,
Noun.
An alarm bell, or the ringing of a bell for the purpose of alarm.

Definition 2024


tocsin

tocsin

English

Noun

tocsin (plural tocsins)

  1. An alarm or other signal sounded by a bell or bells, especially with reference to France.
    • 1804, The Times, 23 Aug 1804, p.3 col. C
      At half-past one, on the sounding of the tocsin (or bell of the public-house) about fifteen persons were collected, when the Rev. J. Bromley was called to the chair.
    • 1970, JG Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition:
      As she entered the projection theatre the soundtrack reverberated across the sculpture garden, a melancholy tocsin modulated by Talbert’s less and less coherent commentary.
    • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 281:
      I'll ring the tocsin, I'll have Saint-Antoine out. I can put twenty thousand armed men on the streets, just like that.
  2. A bell used to sound an alarm.

Translations

See also

Anagrams


French

Etymology

From Old French toquesain, from Provençal tocasenh, from tocar ‘strike, touch’ + senh ‘bell’.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tɔksɛ̃/

Noun

tocsin m (plural tocsins)

  1. an alarm, a tocsin

Anagrams