false alarm

1. 1.

   a warning that is given about something that fails to occur

   Broaderwarning

Questions about false alarm

What does false alarm mean?

false alarm means "a warning that is given about something that fails to occur".

Is false alarm a common word?

false alarm is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.