siren
Other forms: sirens
You know that loud wailing sound coming up the highway behind you? That's the siren on the police car racing along, lights flashing, chasing a speeder (not you, of course).
The word comes from the Sirens in ancient Greek mythology, the women whose beautiful singing lures sailors to wreck their ships on the rocks. Remember Odysseus, in The Odyssey of Homer? He had his crew plug their ears and then tie him to the mast, so that he could hear the Siren song but not be destroyed by it. Most women won't mind if you call them a siren — meaning they're dangerously beautiful. Who'd object to that?
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a warning signal that is a loud wailing sound
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an acoustic device producing a loud often wailing sound as a signal or warningtype of:acoustic devicea device for amplifying or transmitting sound
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a woman who is considered to be dangerously seductivesynonyms: Delilah, enchantress, femme fatale, temptress
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eellike aquatic North American salamander with small forelimbs and no hind limbs; have permanent external gillstype of:salamanderany of various typically terrestrial amphibians that resemble lizards and that return to water only to breed
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Vocabulary lists containing siren
Perhaps the ultimate call to arms, Patrick Henry's speech makes a case for the inevitability of the American Revolution. On March 23, 1775 Virginian patriots met at St. John’s Church in Richmond to discuss support for fellow colonists in Massachusetts where Parliament had sent four regiments of troops. Leading the call for Virginian’s to act was Patrick Henry. In proposing that Virginia prepare itself to fight he delivered an emotional speech ending with his immortal words, “Give me liberty or give me death!”
Vocabulary from Cormac McCarthy's "The Road."