alarmed

1. 1
   adjective

   Feeling worried or frightened, often suddenly, because of a sense that something is wrong or threatening.

   Investors grew alarmed as the market dropped sharply over the week.

   He gave an alarmed glance toward the door when the lights flickered.

   Similarworried, frightened, anxious, scared, startled

   Oppositecalm, unconcerned, relaxed, unperturbed

   Note

   Fear with a cause attached usually takes about or by: alarmed about the army outside, alarmed by the noise. The adjective can also follow a verb phrase to describe someone's state in the middle of an action. Thackeray's groom, caught drinking, "put down the jug alarmed before his master." In that placement it reads as a sudden start of fright rather than a settled worry.

2. 2
   adjective

   Equipped with an alarm that goes off to warn of intrusion, fire, or another emergency.

   The alarmed display case protects the gallery's most valuable jewelry.

   All emergency exits are alarmed and monitored around the clock.

   Note

   Here nobody feels anything. A door, a case or an exit is alarmed because it is wired to sound a warning. Unlike the emotional sense, it cannot be graded: a person can be more alarmed than before, but a door is either fitted or not. The subject usually settles which meaning is meant, since things are alarmed in this sense and people in the other.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of alarm.

   The report alarmed local officials, who called an emergency session.

   Residents were alarmed by the rising floodwaters near their homes.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty. It is the simple past (the report alarmed officials) and the participle after have or be (they had been alarmed). Used with be and a by-phrase naming the cause, it is a true passive. Without that phrase it drifts toward the 'worried' adjective. The verb began as a military word meaning to call to arms, and the noun alarm still keeps that sense of a summons.

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