| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
| alert |
| |
| SYLLABICATION: | a·lert |
| PRONUNCIATION: |   -lûrt |
| ADJECTIVE: | 1. Vigilantly attentive; watchful: alert to danger; an alert bank guard. See synonyms at aware. 2. Mentally responsive and perceptive; quick. 3. Brisk or lively in action: the bird's alert hopping from branch to branch. | | NOUN: | 1. A signal that warns of attack or danger: Sirens sounded the alert for an air raid. 2. A condition or period of heightened watchfulness or preparation for action: Nuclear-armed bombers were put on alert during the crisis. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: a·lert·ed, a·lert·ing, a·lerts
To notify of approaching danger or action; warn: a flashing red light that alerted motorists to trouble ahead. | | IDIOM: | on the alert Watchful and prepared for danger, emergency, or opportunity: bird watchers on the alert for a rare species. | | ETYMOLOGY: | French alerte, from Italian all' erta, on the lookout : alla, to the, on the (from Latin ad illam, to that ( ad, to; see ad– + illam, feminine accusative sing. of ille, that, the; see al-1 in Appendix I) + erta, lookout (from past participle of ergere, to raise, from Latin  rigere; see erect). | | OTHER FORMS: | a·lertly —ADVERB
a·lertness —NOUN
| | |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
