Definition of "signal" []

• An indicator, such as a gesture or colored light, that serves as a means of communication. See Synonyms at gesture. (noun)
• A message communicated by such means. (noun)
• Something that incites action: The peace treaty was the signal for celebration. (noun)
• Electronics An impulse or a fluctuating electric quantity, such as voltage, current, or electric field strength, whose variations represent coded information. (noun)
• The sound, image, or message transmitted or received in telegraphy, telephony, radio, television, or radar. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This became a spam signal because it is so easy to create large database driven websites, but in the case of many sites it is also a good * quality signal* because the site may be very info rich, covering basically every mile of the Oregon Coast Highway 101 in good, objective detail."
• "The issue is not really “signaling”: everybody knows that the FDIC guarantee makes your (fractional reserve) bank account safer; there is no need to *signal* the fact (signaling is necessary only in the absence of a government guarantee, and even then it’s impossible to signal *that the government guarantees your account*, since it doesn’t)."
• "But does his willingness to press such a hot-button issue so early in his term signal an effort to change American hearts as well as minds?"