semaphore

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“
He was told that the semaphore was all that was required for communication.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A visual signaling apparatus with flags, lights, or mechanically moving arms, as one used on a railroad.
  2. noun A visual system for sending information by means of two flags that are held one in each hand, using an alphabetic code based on the position of the signaler's arms.
  3. transitive and intransitive verb To send (a message) or to signal by semaphore.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • However, if the lock is not available and the task is waiting to get the lock, and in the meantime it gets a fatal signal, the task would be removed from the list of waiters waiting for the mutex lock to process the signal. int down_killable (struct semaphore * sem); —  LXer Linux News
  • If the semaphore is not available, it's put to sleep; if a fatal signal is delivered to it, it would be removed from the waiters 'list and would have to respond to the signal. —  LXer Linux News
  • The other two methods of acquiring a semaphore are by using the routines down () or down_interruptible (). —  LXer Linux News
  • That gunboat's semaphore is at work again, and I feel curious to know what it is that she wants to say. —  The Cruise of the Thetis A Tale of the Cuban Insurrection
  • A few more steps and the lever that worked the semaphore was in my hands. —  A Lover in Homespun And Other Stories
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Greek sēma, sign + -phore.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French sémaphore; irreg. from Greek ση̄μα, a sign, + -φορος, from φέρειν = English bear.
 

Pronunciations
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/ˈsɛməfoʊr/
by American Heritage

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