Noun

(en noun)

An alarm or other signal sounded by a bell or bells, especially with reference to France.

* 1804 , The Times , 23 Aug 1804, p.3 col. C

At half-past one, on the sounding of the tocsin (or bell of the public-house) about fifteen persons were collected, when the Rev. J. Bromley was called to the chair.

* 1970 , JG Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition :

As she entered the projection theatre the soundtrack reverberated across the sculpture garden, a melancholy tocsin modulated by Talbert’s less and less coherent commentary.

* 1992 , Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p. 281:

I'll ring the tocsin , I'll have Saint-Antoine out. I can put twenty thousand armed men on the streets, just like that .

A bell used to sound an alarm.

Noun

(en noun)

The action of the verb warn; an instance of warning someone.

* , chapter=7

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. Oh, dear, there's so much to tell you, so many warnings to give you, but all that must be postponed for the moment.”}}

Something spoken or written that is intended to warn.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=76, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Snakes and ladders , passage=Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins.}}