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Signal   /sˈɪgnəl/   Listen
Signal

verb
(past & past part. signaled or signalled; pres. part. signaling or signalling)
1.
Communicate silently and non-verbally by signals or signs.  Synonyms: sign, signalise, signalize.  "The diner signaled the waiters to bring the menu"
2.
Be a signal for or a symptom of.  Synonyms: bespeak, betoken, indicate, point.  "Her behavior points to a severe neurosis" , "The economic indicators signal that the euro is undervalued"



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"Signal" Quotes from Famous Books



... its weight; and Lieutenant Porte, who was to take it across, was in a fix till this war came along and called him over. Orville Wright is trying to make a do of his factory. It is significant that Captain Mitchell, of the U.S. Signal Corps, the other day asked the U.S. Government 'to help those fellows out or they'll have to quit the business.' So you see Jefson, that's why I get the huff when I see the same sort of thing over here, especially in times like ...
— The Sequel - What the Great War will mean to Australia • George A. Taylor

... must have passed before a very faint noise was heard, and then I caught a discreet scratching. It was the signal. One of the little men got up and crawled forward to the door like a dog on his hands and knees. Then I heard a revolver click—a short pause, and the noise of a door being opened. Then there was a ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale

... for the happiness of any woman. I once saw an advertisement in the newspaper inserted by a discontented young wife whose husband was a recluse and would not take her out of evenings. She wanted to communicate with congenial people, and, like a desperate sailor marooned, was driven to wave her signal in the sight of the casual eye. This frank confession of abandonment made a profound impression upon me. I thought to myself, "Master recluse, you are a pilferer and have filched a life. I am yet more solitary in my estate, ...
— Apologia Diffidentis • W. Compton Leith

... Banderial Hussars were for the first time in this war—the first time perhaps in the recollection of man—opposed to one another in battle. If looks could slay, there would have been no need of a conflict, for the eyes of the Magyars shot death and contempt at their unworthy adversaries. The signal of attack sounded; and at the same instant, as if seized by one common thought, the Hungarian Hussars clattered their heavy sabres back into the scabbard, and with a fearful imprecation, such as no German tongue could echo, charged weaponless and at full speed their mimic ...
— The International Weekly Miscellany, Volume I. No. 9. - Of Literature, Art, and Science, August 26, 1850 • Various

... morning, after rising, I was looking for the washing apparatus, when he tapped me on the shoulder, as a signal to accompany him to the brook in the rear of the house, in whose pure crystal waters we performed our morning ablutions. After breakfast, through the persuasion of the sheriff, I agreed to go across the country by his house. He was on horseback; I on foot ...
— Daniel Boone - The Pioneer of Kentucky • John S. C. Abbott

... the robbers out of the house, and at last they hit on a plan. The ass was to place his forefeet on the window-sill, the dog was to get on the ass' back, the cat on the top of the dog, and lastly the cock was to fly up and perch on the cat's head. When that was done, at a given signal, they all began to perform their music. The ass brayed, the dog barked, the cat mewed, and the cock crowed; then they burst through into the room, breaking all the panes of glass. The robbers fled at the dreadful ...
— Holiday Stories for Young People • Various

... lamp, light; incandescent lamp, tungsten bulb, light bulb; flashlight, torch [Brit.]; arc light; laser; [microwave radiation]; maser neon bulb, neon sign; fluorescent lamp. [parts of a light bulb] filament; socket; contacts; filler gas. firework, fizgig^; pyrotechnics; rocket, lighthouse &c (signal) 550. V. illuminate &c (light) 420. Adj. self-luminous, glowing; phosphoric^, phosphorescent, fluorescent; incandescent; luminescent, chemiluminescent; radiant &c (light) 420. Phr. blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels [Longfellow]; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... took the paper and went into the house with Stuyvesant. He led the way up into his cousin Wallace's room. He found Wallace seated at his table in his alcove, where he usually studied. The curtains were both up, which was the signal that Phonny might ...
— Stuyvesant - A Franconia Story • Jacob Abbott

... giving forth their last evening notes—"bentivis," who hang their nests on the bank-side reeds; "niambus," a kind of partridge, whose song is composed of four notes, in perfect accord; "kamichis," with their plaintive melody; kingfishers, whose call responds like a signal to the last cry of their congeners; "canindes," with their sonorous trumpets; and red macaws, who fold their wings in the foliage of the "jaquetibas," when night comes on to ...
— Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon • Jules Verne

... (almost burnt sienna) shows avarice; hard dull brown-grey is a sign of selfishness—a colour which is indeed painfully common; deep heavy grey signifies depression, while a livid pale grey is associated with fear; grey-green is a signal of deceit, while brownish-green (usually flecked with points and flashes of scarlet) betokens jealousy. Green seems always to denote adaptability; in the lowest case, when mingled with selfishness, ...
— Thought-Forms • Annie Besant

... around us changed. Dozens of soldiers jumped up around us, looking every bit like startled pheasants in their bright uniforms, and retired, firing rapidly. This, as if a preconcerted plan, was the signal for a tremendous fire on all sides, which absolutely surprised us. From every adjacent ruin and roof the enemy appeared by magic, and fired at us with ever-increasing vigour. Now just above us the selfsame gun which had demolished my outpost house a few days ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale

... more, but his words were inaudible, and at a signal from the Captain four of the men hurried up, to lace their hands into a bearing, and, keeping step, they bore the insensible man to ...
— Trapped by Malays - A Tale of Bayonet and Kris • George Manville Fenn

... she was placed on a foot-rest, between two trees, about two feet apart, and raised above the ground, just high enough to have a torturing fire built under her feet. Here she was held by two warriors, who mounted the rest beside her, and who applied lighted splinters under her arms. At a given signal a hundred arrows were let fly, and her whole body was pierced. These were immediately withdrawn, and her flesh cut from her bones in small pieces, which were put into baskets, and carried into the corn-field, where the grain was being planted, and the blood ...
— Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers • Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

... camp at last, high up on the great river, in the country of the Yanktonnais. The Sioux long had marked its coming, and were ready for its landing. Their signal fires called in the villages to meet the boats of ...
— The Magnificent Adventure - Being the Story of the World's Greatest Exploration and - the Romance of a Very Gallant Gentleman • Emerson Hough

... that site and they loosed the falcons and lynxes and dogs and caught great plenty of game, whereat they rejoiced and abode there some days, in all joyance of life and its delight. Then the King's son gave the signal for departure; but, as they went along, a beautiful gazelle, as if the sun rose shining from between her horns, that had strayed from her mate, sprang up before the Prince, whereupon his soul longed to make prize of her and he coveted her. So he said ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... last the signal for departure sounded, they parted with a lingering hand-clasp and a simple "God bless you;" but Lord Cameron, as he journeyed back alone to his princely home, felt as if half the light had suddenly gone out of ...
— His Heart's Queen • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... respectful. He gazed steadily at the hard and weather beaten features of his guest, and it is probable that words of higher courtesy than any he had yet used would have fallen from him, had not, at that moment, a signal been given, by a young Indian set to watch on the summit of the rock, that one approached. Both Metacom and Conanchet appeared to hear this cry with some uneasiness. Neither however arose, nor did either betray ...
— The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish • James Fenimore Cooper

... will probably appear in the urine along with the casts, but it is the continued appearance of the casts that is of more importance as a danger signal. Albumin is quite common in the urine of the expectant mother, but casts—long continued—suggest trouble. Headache as an indicator of toxemia is of special significance when coupled with the other two cardinal symptoms of eclampsia—urinary ...
— The Mother and Her Child • William S. Sadler

... in some way to sum up and synthesize the distinctive characteristics of the four rooms. Over it all, sheeting ceiling and walls, lay the living and receptive wax. Singularly suggestive, too, was the appearance of those huge metal discs, like lifeless, dark faces waiting the signal to open their bronze lips and cry aloud, ready for the advent of the Sound that should give them birth and force them to proclaim their mighty secret. Spinrobin stared, silent and fascinated, almost expecting them to begin there and then ...
— The Human Chord • Algernon Blackwood

... feel sleepy, and to get up when you wake rested. Every child under twelve should have at least ten hours of sleep, and every grown person eight, or better still, nine hours. Time spent in sound, refreshing sleep, is time well spent. If you cannot sleep well, it is a signal that something is wrong with your health, or your habits—a danger signal of great importance, which should be attended to at once. The best and only safe sleep-producer is exercise in the ...
— A Handbook of Health • Woods Hutchinson

... before them, she talked to them as if they were human beings, encouraging them so much that they took the first ten miles at a tremendous rate, following so close on the track of the first sledge that presently 'Duke Radford held up his hand as a signal for stopping, then turned round to expostulate in a peevish tone: "What do you mean by letting the dogs wear themselves out at such a rate? We shall have one of them dropping exhausted presently, and then we shall be in a ...
— A Countess from Canada - A Story of Life in the Backwoods • Bessie Marchant

... is Pistoclerus: from his hands were they taken. Mnesilochus is Sinon the abandoned. Behold him! not lying at Achilles' tomb, but on a couch, he has a Bacchis with him, that one of old had a fire, to give the signal,—but this Sinon is burning himself. I am Ulysses whose counsel ...
— Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi • Plautus Titus Maccius

... held their breath. They saw Sir Mador look towards Sir Gaheris, as if to ask him why he delayed giving the signal for the executioner to go ...
— King Arthur's Knights - The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls • Henry Gilbert

... the worst part. The best will be for you." And he wished Kate could hear him. It didn't help him moreover that he visibly, even pathetically, imaged to her by such touches his quest for comfort against discipline. He was to bury Kate's so signal snub, and also the hard law she had now laid on him, under a high intellectual effort. This at least was his crucifixion—that Milly was so interested. She was so interested that she presently asked him if he found his rooms propitious, while he felt that ...
— The Wings of the Dove, Volume II • Henry James

... day on his knees in the chapel, imploring the Virgin to allay a tempest which was strewing the coast with wrecks, when a sentinel brought word that a Moorish cruiser was standing for the land. The Alcayde gave orders to ring the alarm bells, light signal-fires on the hill tops, and rouse the country; for the coast was subject to cruel ...
— Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, March 1844 - Volume 23, Number 3 • Various

... served as signal officer until he was captured and taken to the prison camp at Point Lookout, in which gloomy place was developed the disease which in a few years deprived literature and music of a light that would ...
— Literary Hearthstones of Dixie • La Salle Corbell Pickett

... blushingly back with the usher, who, with his white wand in hand, had stood bolt upright behind her, immensely delighted with the scene in which his pupil—for Alizon had been tutored by him for the occasion—had taken part. Sir Ralph then clapped his hands loudly, and at this signal the tabor and pipe struck up; the Fool and the Hobby-horse, who, though idle all the time, had indulged in a little quiet fun with the rustics, recommenced their gambols; the Morris-dancers their lively dance; and the whole train ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth

... proved, indeed, to be the case, for soon Balbi found the brickwork yielding so rapidly to his efforts that one morning, a week later, Casanova heard three light taps above his head—the preconcerted signal by which they were to assure themselves that their notions of the topography of ...
— The Historical Nights' Entertainment • Rafael Sabatini

... complete. George Goykovich must know this word; it was a danger signal. I would believe now ...
— The Sleuth of St. James's Square • Melville Davisson Post

... happening to her? Something in his young, warm-twinkling eyes seemed to assume a right to her, to speak to her, to extend her his protection. But how? Why did he speak to her? Why were his eyes so certain, so full of light and confident, waiting for no permission nor signal? ...
— The Rainbow • D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

... reverend sir,—it contains only these two or three gold testoons, a coin which, though bearing my own poor features, I have ever found more active against me than on my side, just as my subjects take arms against me, with my own name for their summons and signal.—Take this purse, that thou mayest want no means of amusement. Fail not—fail not to bring met back news from Kinross; only let it be such as, without suspicion or offence, may be told in the presence of this reverend gentleman, or of ...
— The Abbot • Sir Walter Scott

... of the leaders toward the Indian bivouac was a signal for their followers to mingle and exchange greetings. The adventurers were enveloped and very nearly ridden down by over two hundred prancing, screaming horsemen, shouting to their visitors in their own guttural ...
— Overland • John William De Forest

... Holton and half-a-dozen others sprang to the broad gallery which fronted the whole room. Holton was plainly the leader of the party, for when he motioned all the others back, they obeyed his signal without protest, while he, himself, peered eagerly in through a ...
— In Old Kentucky • Edward Marshall and Charles T. Dazey

... the morning, a large crowd of natives were seen at a short distance. In their hands they held boughs of trees, and waved them to express their desire to enter into negotiations. The governor, however, fired two or three shots over their heads, as a signal to them to keep farther away, as their advances would not be received. Then, while a party went down to the shore to fetch the priest, he again sallied out and drove the natives ...
— Under Drake's Flag - A Tale of the Spanish Main • G. A. Henty

... had possessed in 1789. Each victory or defeat of the French popular cause awoke the joy or the sorrow of German Liberals, to whom all was blank at home: and when at length the throne of the Bourbons fell, the signal for deliverance seemed to have sounded in many a city beyond ...
— History of Modern Europe 1792-1878 • C. A. Fyffe

... in the rear, with instructions to follow upon a given signal, Mr. Sanderson on Moota Gutche advanced slowly to the encounter. The rogue elephant did not appear to notice them until within about 200 yards; it then suddenly halted, and turning round, it faced them as though in astonishment at being disturbed. This attitude did not last very long, ...
— Wild Beasts and their Ways • Sir Samuel W. Baker

... the signal for the recurrence of the approving "Ho's" and "Hi's," the gratifying effect of which, however, was slightly marred when silence was restored by a subdued "Hum" ...
— The Prairie Chief • R.M. Ballantyne

... guinea-pig, have simply dispensed with the encumbrance; but the rabbit has kept enough to make a white cockade, which it hoists when bolting from danger. This is for the guidance of the youngsters. Nearly every kind of deer and antelope carries the same signal, with which, when fleeing through dusky woods, the leader shows the way to the herd and ...
— Concerning Animals and Other Matters • E.H. Aitken, (AKA Edward Hamilton)

... how one of these days—very shortly, perhaps—he was certain to take a signal revenge. He would catch her in a lie, in a compromising position somewhere—in this studio, perhaps—and dismiss her with contempt. In an elder day, if they had lived in Turkey, he would have had her strangled, sewn in a sack, and thrown into the Bosporus. As it ...
— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser

... he once carried a dress-suit case full of the explosive around the city, jumping on and off street cars, and dodging vehicles. When the proper moment came and the dynamite had been placed in an uncompleted building on Twenty-second Street, Guthrie gave the signal and the police arrested the dynamiters—all of them, including Guthrie, who was placed with the rest in a cell in the Tombs and continued to report to the district attorney all the information which he thus secured from his unsuspecting ...
— Courts and Criminals • Arthur Train

... although making little progress. From Grant's place on Orchard Knob he watched the struggle. At three o'clock he saw Sherman's right repulsed. Then he gave to Thomas, standing at his side, the order to advance. Six guns were fired as a signal, and the Army of the Cumberland moved forward in splendid array to avenge Chickamauga. The immediate purpose was to carry the rebel rifle pits at the foot of the Ridge. This done, the soldiers were subjected to a galling fire from the line ...
— Ulysses S. Grant • Walter Allen

... exploits were not adequate to his fame. Philip was brave, but the statesman predominated in his character; he was soon weary of sacrificing his health and interest on a barren coast: the surrender of Acre became the signal of his departure; nor could he justify this unpopular desertion, by leaving the duke of Burgundy with five hundred knights and ten thousand foot, for the service of the Holy Land. The king of England, though inferior in dignity, surpassed ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 6 • Edward Gibbon

... side of the town. A movement in the night. Surrounding the town. Muro and Uraso as warriors. The architecture of the buildings. Not built by the natives. Different kinds of architecture. Their distinction. Disposing the forces. The signal for attack. John, and his party rush the breastworks. Enter the town. The surprise and confusion of the Illyas. Harry observes the Illyas' chief and attendants. Surrounds and capture them. Muro makes ...
— The Wonder Island Boys: Conquest of the Savages • Roger Thompson Finlay

... the telephones in this system are radio transceivers, with each instrument having its own private radio frequency and sufficient radiated power to reach the booster station in its area (cell), from which the telephone signal is fed to a telephone exchange. Central American Microwave System - a trunk microwave radio relay system that links the countries of Central America and Mexico with each other. coaxial cable - a multichannel communication cable consisting of ...
— The 2004 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... the airlock guard hailed him when he returned the signal. Tom gave his routine ID. He guided the tractor into the lock, waited until pressure and atmosphere rose to normal, and then ...
— Gold in the Sky • Alan Edward Nourse

... two things at once I am sure I cannot understand; and while the maid brought in the large wooden bowl, the steam of whose household incense rose high in the air, I watched impatient for the signal to begin. When the tea-cups were all collected, and Aunt Sloman held one by the handle daintily over the "boiling flood," "Now," she said with a serene inclination of her head, ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII, No. 29. August, 1873. • Various

... Saturday. And nothing else but love of us and of our hospitality would have so persuaded him to remain with us till then. Therefore now my only chance of seeing Lorna, before I went, lay in watching from the cliff and espying her, or a signal from her. ...
— Lorna Doone - A Romance of Exmoor • R. D. Blackmore

... divulge only certain things to you. Mr. Delora has come to this country on a mission of peculiar danger. He has a secret in his possession which is of immense value, and there are others who are not our friends who know of it. Mr. Delora had a signal at Charing Cross that there was danger in taking up his residence here. That is why he slipped away quietly and is lying now in hiding. If monsieur indeed desires an adventure, I could propose one ...
— The Lost Ambassador - The Search For The Missing Delora • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... distress, possessed of ministers that always seek his good, free from the fault of egoism, never without a wife,[352] and undisposed to do anything with haste. He should always reward his ministers when they achieve anything signal. He should love those that are devoted to him. Avoiding idleness, he should always attract men to himself by doing good to them. His face should always be cheerful. He should always be attentive to the wants of his servants and never give ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... It will save her. I only want steering power. Look here, don't fire unless you are obliged. If you do, mind, I take it as a signal that you want help, both of you; and then of course we shall come to your help. But what about ...
— Sail Ho! - A Boy at Sea • George Manville Fenn

... comes of long and changeful association with strange peoples, the changing countenance of the Afghan chief impresses me at once as the fiery signal of inbred Mussulman fanaticism, lighting up spontaneously at the unexpected and unannounced arrival of a lone Ferenghi in his presence. It savors somewhat of bearding a dangerous lion in his own den. He certainly betrays deep embarrassment at my appearance; ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle Volume II. - From Teheran To Yokohama • Thomas Stevens

... men smashed in the front door at Fairview without so much as a knock for signal. To the shivering servant who stood in the ...
— The Victim - A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis • Thomas Dixon

... adventurous life, well and good; if it were to encounter death and the cessation of all earthly things, that was well too, and a good to be embraced with ardor. Obedience was all, and obedience at a mere signal! I took ...
— The Chief Legatee • Anna Katharine Green

... the Nancy Bell sailed back and forth within sight of the light that marked the mouth of the river. Soon after day-light a pilot-boat was seen approaching her in answer to the signal which was flying from the main rigging. As the boat ran alongside, a colored pilot clambered to the deck and declared it did him good to see a big schooner waiting to come into the St. ...
— Wakulla - A Story of Adventure in Florida • Kirk Munroe

... o'clock the atmosphere cleared, and showed in the distance a steamer, westward bound. The vessel evidently belonged to one of the great ocean lines. The moment it was sighted there fluttered up to the masthead a number of signal-flags, and people crowded to the side of the ship to watch the effect on the outgoing vessel. Minute after minute passed, but there was no response from the other liner. People watched her with breathless ...
— A Woman Intervenes • Robert Barr

... down, no matter what may be its brilliance of artistic development or material achievement. But these homely qualities are not enough. There must, in addition, be that power of organization, that power of working in common for a common end, which the German people have shown in such signal fashion during the last half-century. Moreover, the things of the spirit are even more important than the things of the body. We can well do without the hard intolerance and and barrenness of what was worst ...
— African and European Addresses • Theodore Roosevelt

... they heard the reply, but recognizably closer. Malcolm raised his hand without moving or looking back, but his father saw, and interpreted the gesture to mean that the time had come for him to stop. He took a few steps to conceal himself, for he was between trees when the signal came, and paused, already so elated he wanted to shout; he scarcely could restrain the impulse. What was the use in going farther? His desire was to race back to Multiopolis at speed limit to tell Mr. ...
— Michael O'Halloran • Gene Stratton-Porter

... "we will wait until we know what this strange affair means. I shall request you both to remain perfectly quiet until by word or signal I advise ...
— Daisy Brooks - A Perilous Love • Laura Jean Libbey

... city which may not inaptly be designated the Nuremberg of Northern Germany. It is not difficult here on the spot to picture the life of the painter while yet in his teens. The historic town of Lubeck had enjoyed a signal political, commercial and artistic epoch. As the head of the Hanseatic League, it rose to unexampled prosperity. Deputies from eighty confederate municipalities assembled in the audience-chamber of the Rathhaus; ...
— Overbeck • J. Beavington Atkinson

... only a light skirmish with the barbarians, as the envious and ill-willers affirm, if they did not after the battle fly away, cutting their cables and giving themselves to the wind, to carry them as far as might be from the Attic coast, but having a shield lifted up to them as a signal of treason, made straight with their fleet for Athens, in hope to surprise it, and having at leisure doubled the point of Sunium, were discovered above the port Phalerum, so that the chief and most illustrious men, despairing to save the city would have betrayed it. For a little after, acquitting ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch

... be,' and cross myself and signal the doughboys to lower away on the coffin, and I flung a handfula dirt in on top like I see ...
— O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1920 • Various

... had sat in some famous assembly, had signed some famous document, had filled some high place, or had made himself conspicuous for learning, for scholarship, or for signal services rendered in the cause of liberty. One had framed the Albany plan of union; some had been members of the Stamp Act Congress of 1765; some had signed the Declaration of Rights in 1774; the names of others appear at the foot of the Declaration of Independence and at the ...
— The Spirit of American Government - A Study Of The Constitution: Its Origin, Influence And - Relation To Democracy • J. Allen Smith

... kind was rather laughable. One night, about midnight, the gale, which had been blowing violently, suddenly lulled, "as if," to use a sailor's phrase, "it had been chopped off!" Instantly the ship gave a tremendous lurch, which was the signal for a general breaking loose. Two or three others followed, so violent, that for a moment I imagined the vessel had been thrown on her beam ends. Trunks, crockery and barrels went banging down from one end of the ...
— Views a-foot • J. Bayard Taylor

... part in more deadly encounters than the one in the play-ground at Greenwich, and to take high rank among the naval heroes of Great Britain. After valiantly fighting the battles of his country in both hemispheres, and rising to the rank of Admiral, he achieved that signal victory over the Spanish fleet which procured for him the Earldom of St. Vincent. Nor is the low-browed lad who was his opponent altogether unknown to fame. His name was Thomas Brett, and he lived to do good service in various capacities under Nelson and Collingwood. ...
— Canadian Notabilities, Volume 1 • John Charles Dent

... plain—conspicuous fifty-foot pennants flying from the mast-heads, great cloth banners stretching along the hull on either side, a large house flag, wide deck cloths, and two huge red-and-white-striped signal balls eight feet in diameter at the top of the masts. All these flags and cloths were white, carrying the Commission's name or initials (C. R. B.) in great red letters. Despite all these, a few too eager or too brutal submarine commanders let fly their torpedoes ...
— Herbert Hoover - The Man and His Work • Vernon Kellogg

... private signal from Blanche, Arnold slipped out and repaired to his post, where the roads crossed the road that led to ...
— Man and Wife • Wilkie Collins

... There had been an explosion, and over forty men were imprisoned in what seemed likely to be their grave. The brave fellows on the cage knew they were taking their lives in their hands, but they stood calmly waiting the signal which should lower them into a possible death. While some detail of the machinery was being adjusted, a fine stalwart young man, some three-and-twenty years of age, forced his way through the crowd, and, seizing one of the rescue-party, literally ...
— Men in the Making • Ambrose Shepherd

... thirty slaves. A moment's hesitation. Then, at the signal from the guards, about twenty, amongst whom was Alphonse, stalked off to the right. Ten, amongst whom was ...
— The House of Walderne - A Tale of the Cloister and the Forest in the Days of the Barons' Wars • A. D. Crake

... our homeward road, We strove to signal him, swooping nigh, That he would ease his decks of their load Of nettings ...
— Collected Poems - Volume Two (of 2) • Alfred Noyes

... entered the house I was almost suffocated with the strong fumes of tobacco-smoke, snuff, and whiskey; and as I had been an old school-fellow of Denis's, my appearance was the signal for a general burst of grief among his relations, in which the more distant friends and neighbors of the deceased joined, to keep ...
— The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim • William Carleton

... another man's through all the rest of the year was a kind of thing he of all men could appreciate. He had long since begun to sigh again for Eustacia; indeed, it may be asserted that signing the marriage register with Thomasin was the natural signal to his heart to return to its first quarters, and that the extra complication of Eustacia's marriage was the one addition required to make ...
— The Return of the Native • Thomas Hardy

... so remote that it may not have its banished men. The outcast preacher had committed the one deadly sin acknowledged amongst those wild wreckers and watermen. It was not that he had knocked a drowning man in the head, nor shown a false signal along the shore to decoy a vessel into the breakers, nor darkened the lighthouse lamp. These things had been done, but not ...
— Tales of the Chesapeake • George Alfred Townsend

... Atkins was seen to get out of his car and walk to the top of the knoll. He stood a moment, then waved to signal his readiness. ...
— The Great Gray Plague • Raymond F. Jones

... English speech by Norman-French. But for the present the results are apt to sound grotesque, when the traveller, who expects a train to start at the appointed time, is told: "tren late hai, lekin singal down hogaya" (the train is late, but the signal has been lowered), or the criticism is passed on a popular officer: "bahut affable hai, lekin hand shake nahin karta" (very affable, but doesn't ...
— The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir • Sir James McCrone Douie

... decides the whole issue of things. In Madrid that was called rebellion which in Brussels was styled only a lawful remonstrance. The complaints of Brabant required a prudent mediator; Philip II sent an executioner, and the signal for war was given. An unparalleled tyranny assailed ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1-20 • Various

... cruiser was under water five miles north-north-east magnetic from Cape Farnell. The map said the depth there was fifty fathoms. Then my paranoid Talent observed that there'd be spies on shore with means to signal to the submerged cruiser. My dowser then found a small shack on the map where a communicator to the ship would be. With the information about the arrival of the liners, and the facts about the cruiser—and I had other information too—I went to the Ministry for Diplomatic Affairs and told you. ...
— Talents, Incorporated • William Fitzgerald Jenkins

... what I've put the signal down for hundreds an' hundreds of times. I miss him powerful bad, but the Army wanted him, and we've been and got some thanks too. I'm proud to think ...
— Punch, 1917.07.04, Vol. 153, Issue No. 1 • Various

... 16. We weighed anchor about half after five in the morning, with the wind North-Nor'-West, and it blows very fresh. We passed the Light House about half after seven. It is now half after nine and a signal has been fired for the ships all to lie to for the Bridgewater, which seems to lag behind, I believe on account of some misfortune that happened to her yesterday.... It is now two o'clock and we have again got under way. We have been waiting for a ship ...
— Glimpses of the Past - History of the River St. John, A.D. 1604-1784 • W. O. Raymond

... the Italian poet whom his countrymen would undoubtedly name next after Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, and Tasso, and who, in spite of his limitations, was a man of signal and distinct dramatic power, not surpassed if equaled since, is scarcely more than a name to most English readers. He was born in the year 1749, at Asti, a little city of that Piedmont where there has always been a ...
— Modern Italian Poets • W. D. Howells

... appear in her short, chequered cotton dress, shawled and with her market basket on her arm, and would summon Gertrude alone or with Solomon Martin to Fraulein's room opposite the saal on the ground floor. The appearance of Anna was the signal for bounding anticipations. It nearly always meant ...
— Pointed Roofs - Pilgrimage, Volume 1 • Dorothy Richardson

... same respect in the meanwhile is paid to me in a more legitimate manner; for to me there are as many statues erected as there are moving fabrics of mortality; every person, even against his own will, carrying the image of me, i.e. the signal of Folly instamped on his countenance. I have not therefore the least tempting inducement to envy the more seeming state and splendour of the other gods, who are worshipped at set times and places; as Phoebus at Rhodes, ...
— In Praise of Folly - Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts • Desiderius Erasmus

... sale is a signal which, at once, puts a thousand hearts in motion, and brings contenders from every part to the scene of distribution. He that had resolved to buy no more, feels his constancy subdued; there is now something in the catalogue which completes ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume IV: The Adventurer; The Idler • Samuel Johnson

... doubt, or fear; but those who saw Their tranquil victim pass, felt wonder glide Into their brain, and became calm with awe.— 4480 See, the slow pageant near the pile doth draw. A thousand torches in the spacious square, Borne by the ready slaves of ruthless law, Await the signal round: the morning fair Is changed to a dim night ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley

... while a dispute seemed to be going on between the men seated at the table. Then, at a given signal, the guards marshaled the prisoners in line and led them toward the wall at the back of the ...
— Army Boys on German Soil • Homer Randall

... come down to Apsley," she said, "one week end, I'd get a certain number of people down there, and when they are all congregated in the drawing-room after dinner, you could stand with your back to the fire, command the whole room and, at a signal from me, make that speech. You'd be the lion of ...
— Sally Bishop - A Romance • E. Temple Thurston

... generally known by his family name of Bacon, "took all learning for his province"; and, though peaceful studies were again for a while rudely interrupted by the "dark deeds of horrid war," the restoration of peace was, as it had been before, a signal for the resumption of their studies by many of the best-born of the land. Another Earl of Dorset displayed his hereditary talent not less than his martial gallantry. Lord Roscommon well deserved the praises which Dryden ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole - Volume I • Horace Walpole

... cry of a loon was raised across the stream. This was a signal they had used before. Musq'oosis started with well-simulated surprise, in case she should be watching him, and, rising, waddled soberly to his dugout. Nobody in the village above paid any particular attention to him. ...
— The Huntress • Hulbert Footner

... not only given signal proofs of his bravery as a naval officer, but particularly in a duel with another marine officer, Mr. Perkins, whom he fought at Cape Francois; each taking hold of the end of a handkerchief, fired, and although the balls went through both their bodies, neither of the wounds proved mortal! The friars ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 223, February 4, 1854 • Various

... hereditary, equipped with a certain traditional and independent organisation, observing certain common usages, more particularly as to marriage, food, and questions of ceremonial pollution, and ruling its members by the sanction of certain penalties of which the most signal is the sentence of irrevocable exclusion or out-casting. The Census of 1901 was the first to attempt a thorough classification of Indian castes, and the number of the main castes enumerated in it is well over ...
— India, Old and New • Sir Valentine Chirol

... was long remembered in the Luttrells' house as a period of vague and curious discomfort. The reddish light in Richard's eyes was well known for a danger signal; a storm was in the air when he wore that expression of suppressed emotion. Brian, a good deal disturbed by what had occurred, scarcely spoke at all; he sat with his eyes fixed on the table, forgetting to eat, and glancing only from time to time at Hugo's young, beautiful, laughing face, ...
— Under False Pretences - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... If vulgar men discovered their new worlds, and trafficked and bustled there, why should not the poet discover his Arcadia, and repose at his ease in it, secure from the noises of feet coming and going over the roads of the earth? That fine melodiousness, which is one of Spenser's signal characteristics, may be perceived in his Eclogues, as also a native gracefulness of style, which is another distinguishing mark of him. Perceivable, too, are his great, perilous fluency of language and his immense fecundity ...
— A Biography of Edmund Spenser • John W. Hales

... inhabitants of the land." 2. Had this been their great object, they took the best and speediest plan for its accomplishment. Attacking the system directly, the appearance of the Christian missionary would have been the signal for servile war and untold bloodshed, the slave against the master, the poor against the rich; and the heathen rulers, eager for a pretext to crush them, would have denounced them as lighting the torch of ...
— Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible? • Isaac Allen

... forward to the cage bars, but said nothing; it was very dark inside the cage, and even the sharp-eyed old woman could not possibly have seen his gestures; when he stood, tight-pressed, against the bars she might have made out his dark shape dimly, but unless he chose to speak no signal could possibly have passed from him to her. He said nothing, though, and she-still sweeping, with her back toward him—passed by the cage, and stooped to scratch at some hard-caked dirt or other close to the rubbish hole where the Hindoo waited. Still scratching, ...
— Rung Ho! • Talbot Mundy

... rail from seating itself properly. This objection has been entirely overcome in this design, by allowing liberal clearance on all seats, and securing rigidity by the sliding bars and wedges which are connected with the inter-locking system, so that it is impossible for a clear signal to be given unless the lift-rails and wedges are in their proper positions. This device has been operated successfully on the New York and Long Branch Railroad bridge over Raritan Bay ...
— Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910 • E. B. Temple

... this moment engaged in some researches," I said, "that cannot fail to interest you, and where, perhaps, you may be of signal service, if you will consent to stay with us awhile and put up ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 2 • Various

... signal for applause, and the audience, who, according to custom, had hitherto remained silent out of respect for the Queen, gave full vent to their enthusiasm. From that moment, scarcely a word of Rose's was allowed to pass without ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 29, May 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... drama—only bad verse, foolish librettos, dealing with monsters and gods, and indifferent scene-painting. Moreover, this new music is not understood by the world. Even if the whole of mankind could be assembled on the roof of the world and at a preconcerted signal made to howl the Marseillaise, it would not be educated to the heights I imagine. Stage plays—Shakespeare has no message for our days; Ibsen is an anarchist—he believes in placing the torpedo under the social ark. Painting—it is an affair for state galleries ...
— Visionaries • James Huneker

... was the only one he had in the country, and the misfortune seemed irreparable until the services of Mr. Bunbury's valet were called in, who however performed his functions so indifferently that poor Goldsmith's appearance became the signal for a general smile' ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith • Oliver Goldsmith

... the Northern vessels will appear before Charleston tomorrow," he said, "and the shots were a signal to all our people to be ready. The attack on Sumter will begin in the morning. Now you three boys must go to sleep. We shall need tomorrow soldiers who are fresh and strong, not those who are worn and weak from ...
— The Guns of Bull Run - A Story of the Civil War's Eve • Joseph A. Altsheler

... to bear the hardships and face the dangers of our American wilderness, for the special purpose of carrying the Gospel of peace, love, and brotherhood to the benighted denizen of our American forests, none have exhibited more signal courage, patience, and devotion than the companies which first selected Oregon as their special ...
— Woman on the American Frontier • William Worthington Fowler

... her, although I knew she would feel my touch to be gentle. You have seen, I hope, that Betty was dearer to me than anyone else in the world, and I knew that, apart from the stirring emotions in her own young life, Betty held me in the closest affection. When she needed me, she would fly the signal. Of that I ...
— The Red Planet • William J. Locke

... opinion is that the only way you could keep the matter quiet is to arrest every civilian present, including myself, and hold us incommunicado. You have your duty, and we have ours. Ours does not include withholding information from the public which may signal the greatest shift in the conduct of the Geest War ...
— Watch the Sky • James H. Schmitz

... self-control, because they had shewn themselves wanting in obedience to them, when it was possible to capture as prisoners of war such a multitude of Persians and the son of Glones and the city itself, while they had in consequence attached to themselves signal disgrace by carrying Roman money to the enemy, and had taken Amida from the Persians by purchasing it with silver. [506 A.D.] After this the Persians, since their war with the Huns kept dragging on, entered into a treaty with the Romans, which was arranged by them for seven ...
— History of the Wars, Books I and II (of 8) - The Persian War • Procopius

... society and were spread throughout every province of the empire. The plan consisted in the establishment of a democratic constitution, the first step to which appears to have been an attempt against the life of the imperial family. The signal for insurrection was to be given by firing the immense wood-yards. The hearts of the people were to be gained by the destruction of the government accounts. The discovery was made through a conspiracy formed in Denmark. The chief conspirator was seized and sent to the gallows. The rest were ...
— Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4 • Wolfgang Menzel, Trans. Mrs. George Horrocks

... and taking refuge in the bow, we became sensible that we were descending through the air with frightful rapidity. When the accident occurred, we were already at a low level, on the look-out for the signal at our station. This circumstance was in our favor, if anything could be, when a danger so imminent and dreadful was pressing. Land, like a hazy shadow, was just discoverable in the dim distance below us; and oh for one foot of it as a place of ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859 • Various

... heroes were near enough to see each other, each was so filled with admiration for the beautiful form and the bravery of his opponent that, as if at a given signal, both threw down their weapons and hastened toward each other. Pirithous extended his hand to Theseus and proposed that the latter act as arbitrator for the settlement of the dispute about the cattle: whatever satisfaction Theseus would demand ...
— Myths and Legends of All Nations • Various

... a drum or two sounded the step, and off the brigade marched, slowly and solemnly. A cornet signal, followed by a drum roll, and then the Naval Academy Band crashed into the joyous march, consecrated to this occasion, "Ain't I glad I'm ...
— Dave Darrin's Fourth Year at Annapolis • H. Irving Hancock

... Fleda looked at it also through that vague fear which casts its own lurid colour upon everything. The very flickering of the candle blaze seemed of ill omen, and her grandfather's empty chair stood a signal of pain to little Fleda whenever she looked at it. She sat still, in submissive patience, her cheek pale with the working of a heart too big for that little body. Cynthia was going in and out of her grandfather's room, but Fleda would ...
— Queechy • Susan Warner

... is a diagram of the connections in a simple telegraph circuit. At each of the stations there is a battery B B', an interruptor or sending key K K'to make and break the continuity of the circuit, a receiving instrument R R'to indicate the signal currents by their sensible effects, and connections with ground or "earth plates" E E' to engage the earth as a return wire. These are usually copper plates buried in the moist subsoil or the water pipes of a city. The ...
— The Story Of Electricity • John Munro

... there on signal. And make up your mind that the Weston family is with you forty ways from the Jack day and night. Good-bye, and ...
— The Easiest Way - Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911 • Eugene Walter

... to be the signal for the breaking down of the final barriers which ordinary decency should have raised. The language and vituperation became such ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... horses' hoofs on the frost-bound road; it was a long way in the distance, but it was the unmistakable signal of a well-mounted traveller approaching—of more than one well-mounted traveller, it became quickly apparent, the clattering was so loud and incessant ...
— Stories by English Authors: England • Various

... the boatswain had thrown into the boat before we left the ship, was a bundle of signal flags that had been made for the boats to show the depth of water in sounding; with these I had, in the course of the passage, made a small jack, which I now hoisted in the main shrouds, as a signal of distress; for I did not choose ...
— A Narrative Of The Mutiny, On Board His Majesty's Ship Bounty; And The Subsequent Voyage Of Part Of The Crew, In The Ship's Boat • William Bligh

... interesting. [He gives a signal. The men, huskies all, throw themselves on YANK and before he knows it they have his legs and arms pinioned. But he is too flabbergasted to make a struggle, anyway. They ...
— The Hairy Ape • Eugene O'Neill

... him disconcerted, interposed in his behalf, and chid her cousin for having practised such unnecessary affectation; upon which, Emilia, softened into compliance, held out her finger as a signal of her condescension. Peregrine put on the ring with great eagerness, and mumbled her soft white hand in an ecstasy which would not allow him to confine his embraces to that limb, but urged him to seize her by the waist, and snatch a delicious kiss from her love-pouting lips; nor would he leave her ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett

... During the night signal fires blazed from the mountain tops and bells sounded the hours. In the next few days the famous letter, which was incased in a golden box of a thousand dollars value, was delivered. Nothing very definite was accomplished, however, and the ...
— Birdseye Views of Far Lands • James T. Nichols



Words linked to "Signal" :   curfew, symbol, tell, semaphore, communication, alert, provocation, foretell, foreshadow, beam, incitation, ticktack, communicate, portend, output, radio beam, incitement, electricity, omen, telephone number, prognosticate, wigwag, flag, indicator, electrical energy, interrupt, high sign, presage, retreat, prefigure, radio beacon, number, alarum, bugle call, predict, heliograph, input, whistle, dog-ear, start, augur, phone number, whistling, animal communication, bode, all clear, alarm, intercommunicate, mark, drumbeat, distress call, auspicate, recording, impressive, forecast



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