semaphore
1
8.6
- noun
- /ˈsɛmɪfɔr/
- Specialized
:
señalización con banderas
- Uh, dear Mr. McWhirter, regarding your complaint about our latest shipment of semaphore flags...
- semaphore signals
Examples
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he went to send a message by the semaphore perpetrating the most monstrous fraud in history
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During the training session, the instructor taught us how to send messages using semaphore signals.
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What are these gentlemen spelling out in semaphore?
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Um, regarding your complaint about our recent shipment of semaphore flags, I feel...
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To Mrs. Wooley across the street, I might have looked like a man sending semaphore to a distant ship.
Fiction book (1994) -
Tie shouted, waving both hands slowly back and forth above his head like a semaphore.
Fiction book (1992) -
In Boy Scouts, I had earned a merit badge for "Communications," which required competence in semaphore and Morse code.
Fiction book (1990) -
Well, you can take your dictation and your two-bit secretarial job and your semaphore flags and just shove them in your briefcase!
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A sailor ghost flagged semaphore; colored flags whipped around the alphabet, but the only man on the ward who knew how to read it was a blind quartermaster, so that was a loss.
Fiction book (1996) -
The sailors used semaphore to communicate with each other from a distance while at sea.
Synonyms
A tower with moving arms that shows messages to people far away
A way to send visible messages over long distances using towers with moving arms
Sending messages with flags by moving them in set patterns over a distance, often between ships
A system that sends messages over long distances using towers with moving arms or lights
Compounds
- Archaic
A way to send visible messages over long distances using towers with moving arms
How Visible
Surface Forms
Etymology
Semaphore comes from the Greek parts sema 'sign' and phoros 'bearer', so it means a 'sign-bearer' and describes the flag system where people hold flags or arms in different positions to carry letters or messages across a distance.