Definition of "red alert" []

• A warning that indicates an emergency situation. (interjection)
• A state of readiness to deal with such emergency situation. (interjection)

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• "In the silence of the observation deck, it sounded as loud as the red alert Klaxon on a starship."
• "Then it dawns on me that, for as long as our delegates are in the conference room, there's nobody left for him to watch, which only goes to show that when you're geared up to peak performance with your nerve-ends out and your interpreter's third ear on red alert you can still be thick-headed when it comes to common sense."