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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

alarums and excursions en · NOUN

Etymology

From a Shakespearean stage direction, indicating that soldiers should march across the stage, blowing bugles and beating drums, etc.

Meanings

  1. (plural, plural-only) All the sounds and activities of preparations for war.
    • The French armies were not far off, and there were alarums and excursions all along the border. 1898, Henry Augustin Beers, chapter 11, in 18th Century: A History of English Romanticism:
  2. (broadly, idiomatic, plural, plural-only) Any frantic activity.
    • He had been well aware ever since his coming to Hathelsborough of an atmosphere of intrigue and mystery; every development that occurred seemed to thicken it. . . . It puzzled him, being still a stranger to the habits and customs of these people, to see that life in Hathelsborough went on, amidst all these alarums and excursions. 1922, J. S. Fletcher, chapter 19, in In the Mayor's Parlour:
    • The various alarums and excursions in The Rock that early evening did not dent attendance at these meetings very much […] 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things: