Tocsin

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtÉ’ksɪn/
• Rhymes: -É’ksɪn
• Homophones: toxin

Origin

From Old French toquesain (modern tocsin), from Provencal tocasenh, from tocar ‘strike, touch’ + senh ‘bell’.

Full definition of tocsin

Noun

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. CAt 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.

Anagrams

• tonics