alarm clock
42
1.0
- noun
- /əˈlɑrm klɑk/
:
despertador
- Every night, I place my alarm clock on the bedside table so I can hear it in the morning.
Did you wake up to an alarm clock or an opportunity clock?
- Did you wake up to an alarm clock or an opportunity clock?
- Well, the Ruggie is an alarm clock that's more like a bath mat.
- And that's why we actually use alarm clocks to wake us up.
- I know I'm being successful when I never have an alarm clock.
- So but, you know, workers didn't need alarm clocks.
- Go to bed on time, sleep as much as I need, don't use an alarm clock.
- She has an alarm clock that she plugged into the wall and is like set the alarm clock so it would go off right then.
Examples
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Half asleep, Tor reached for the alarm clock and saw that it was only five o'clock.
Fiction book (1995) -
The annoying sound in his ears is the buzz of his alarm clock.
Fiction book (1992) -
Then when your alarm clock goes off, just get up.
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So set your alarm clock people.
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What happened to the alarm clock?
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But usually if I wake up that that much before my alarm clock, I'll go back to sleep.
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And that's why we actually use alarm clocks to wake us up.
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The only time I use an alarm clock is on ski days and when I've got a flight to catch.
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The first thing she heard when she walked in the door was the alarm clock; its ticking was excruciatingly loud.
Fiction book (1995) -
Well, the Ruggie is an alarm clock that's more like a bath mat.
Synonyms
842
1.0
A device that makes a loud sound to warn or wake people
9
2.6
A radio with a clock that you set to switch on or off at a chosen time
5
2.7
A phone call arranged to wake someone at a set time
How Loud
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a clock that warns or wakes someone' is directly compositional from 'alarm' (a signaling/warning device) + 'clock' (a timekeeping device); the compound simply specifies the clock's function. This noun+noun formation is a regular, cross-linguistically common pattern and would be immediately clear to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
Alarm clock is made from alarm (a loud warning) and clock (a tool that shows time). Long ago people used bells as 'alarms' to warn or call others, and when clocks were made to sound that warning at a set time to 'wake' someone, they were called 'alarm clocks', so the name means a clock that wakes you.