panic button
12
2.8
- noun
- /ˈpænɪk ˈbʌtən/
:
botón de pánico
- In case of an emergency, you should press the panic button to get immediate help.
- push the panic button
- hit the panic button
- press the panic button
Examples
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In case of an emergency, there's a panic button on the dedicated shortwave radio you use for monthly radio checks.
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If she becomes too difficult, there's a panic button on the wall.
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In case of an emergency, this is the panic button.
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Is your finger on the panic button?
Blog text (6) -
I wanted to press the panic button, but she wouldn't let me.
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There's a panic button in the security office.
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One of them hits the panic button and alarms begin to sound.
Fiction book (1991) -
That's when I started getting worried, and I pushed the panic button.
Fiction book (1990) -
SEPTA says all buses have a panic button.
Blog text (10) -
There was a panic button beneath her desk, someone had told him; the day the others had occupied the waiting room, she had used it to call security.
Fiction book (1999)
How Immediate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a button pressed to summon immediate help in an emergency' is directly inferable from combining 'panic' (sudden overwhelming fear) with 'button' (a device you press). The noun compound follows the common English pattern X + button = a button for X (e.g., 'reset button', 'call button'), so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily deduce the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The noun panic button comes from the image of a small button you press when you are in panic to call for quick 'help'. So, it means a button that brings fast 'help' in an 'emergency'.