emergency
(ɪˈmɜːdʒənsɪ)
[ad. late L. ēmergentia: see prec. and -ency.]
1. The rising of a submerged body above the surface of water; = emergence 1. Now rare.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. vi. 194 A Tyrant..to prevent the emergencie of murdered bodies did use to cut off their lungs. 1693 Phil. Trans. XVII. 689 They [the Goodwin Sands]..may be of late Emergency. 1880 A. R. Wallace Isl. Life ix. 169 Repeated submergencies and emergencies of the land. |
† 2. a. The process of issuing from concealment, confinement, etc.; = emergence 2. Obs.
| c 1645 Howell Fam. Lett. (1650) II. 4 Congratulat his.. emergency from that course he was plunged in. 1656 H. More Antid. Ath. Pref. Gen. (1712) 14 The..immediate emergency of Vitality from Spirit. 1663 Boyle Colours (J.), The emergency of colours, upon coalition of the particles of such bodies..is very well worth our attentive observation. |
† b. Astron. = emergence 2 b. Obs. rare.
| 1762 Dunn in Phil. Trans. LII. 579, I had compared it with the fixed stars, and the Moon, after emergency from the aforementioned clouds. |
† 3. The arising, sudden or unexpected occurrence (of a state of things, an event, etc.). Obs.
| 1665 Glanvill Sceps. Sci. xxi, Most of our Rarities have been found out by casual emergency. 1755 N. Magens Insurances II. 2 The Emergency of an unexpected Case. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 383 The emergency of war very frequently required their presence on the frontiers. |
4. concr. a. (the ordinary mod. use): A juncture that arises or ‘turns up’; esp. a state of things unexpectedly arising, and urgently demanding immediate action.
| a 1631 Donne Select. (1840) 107 The Psalms minister instruction..to every man, in every emergency. 1764 Burn Poor Laws 196 Relief on sudden emergencies. 1821 Byron Mar. Fal. v. i. 183 On great emergencies The law must be remodell'd or amended. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. iv. 342 The bishop, beautifully equal to the emergency, arose. 1867 Smiles Huguenots Eng. ii. (1880) 22 On an emergency he would even undertake to measure land. |
¶ Hence sometimes used for: Urgency, pressing need. ‘A sense not proper’ (J.).
| 1716 Addison Freeholder (J.), In any case of emergency, he would employ the whole wealth of his empire. Mod. It is a case of great emergency. |
† b. pl. Casual or contingent profits. Obs.
| a 1662 Heylin Laud i. 151 Rents, Profits and Emergencies belonging to a Bishop of Bath and Wells. |
c. Cricket, etc. An emergency man, a substitute. (No longer current.)
| 1851 Nottingham Rev. 5 Sept. 3/4 Emergency Williams, Esq., b. Goodrich. 1862 in W. G. Grace Cricketing Remin. (1899) i. 12 With this ball (presented by M.C.C. to E. M. Grace), he got every wicket in 2nd innings, in the match played at Canterbury, August 14, 15, 1862, Gentlemen of Kent v. M.C.C. for whom he played as an emergency, and in which, going in first, he scored 192 not out. 1885 J. Lillywhite Cricketers' Compan. 59 George Alexander..only played as an emergency. |
d. spec., as a political term, to describe a condition approximating to that of war; occas. as a synonym or euphemism for war; also state of emergency, wherein the normal constitution is suspended.
| 1893 C. G. Leland Memoirs 251 The rebels..had penetrated into Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia was threatened. This period was called the ‘Emergency’. 1958 Spectator 17 Jan. 65/2 He has declared a state of emergency to suppress a strike of African railway workers. 1958 Oxf. Mag. 13 Mar. 374/2 The unmentionable word ‘war’ decently euphemised as ‘emergency’. |
5. attrib. a. spec., esp. in Emergency man: (in Ireland) an occasional bailiff's officer, recruited for special service, esp. in evictions.
| 1881 Let. 14 Dec. in Reid Life of W. E. Forster (1888) II. viii. 377 The Emergency Committee..was a purely Orange emanation. 1883 Ann. Reg. i. 1 Three Emergency men [were] attacked by an armed party. |
b. In general adj. sense ‘used, issued, called upon, or arising in an emergency’.
| 1896 Daily Chron. 15 Aug. 11/6 She had been asked by the medical officer to take charge of the emergency brandy. 1898 Daily News 13 May 5/2 The emergency ration is never served out for more than five days consecutively. 1900 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 21 Sept. 802/2 The fitting of emergency brakes. 1902 Young Engineer I. 47/2 Doors are provided both for regular use and as emergency exits. 1903 Westm. Gaz. 11 Sept. 8/1 Directly the current between the Bank Station and the stations as far as the British Museum was cut off, an emergency current was turned on. 1904 F. F. Moore Original Woman xxiv. 265 He was a man who had always at hand an emergency exit opening outward by which he could escape from any situation that was getting too hot for him. 1915 Lit. Digest (N.Y.) 21 Aug. 348/1 All of the [beaver-]ponds are equipped with ‘emergency exits’ in the form of holes in the bank. 1920 Act 10 Geo. V c. 5 (title) An Act to continue temporarily certain emergency enactments. 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §729 Emergency man..a tramway conductor..who is held in readiness to replace anyone of depot cashier's assistants who may be on leave or sick. 1925 W. Deeping Sorrell & Son xxx. 296 He asked you to do an emergency job for him in the [operating] theatre. 1925 A. S. M. Hutchinson One Increasing Purpose i. xx, ‘Have you a girl on your staff called Glade?’ ‘Not on my staff... Miss Glade is one of my emergency-calls. I get her when I want her, if she is available.’ 1929 Star 21 Aug. 12/1 Glamorgan's emergency bowlers. 1935 Archit. Rev. LXXVII. 206 (caption) Looking along the outside wall of the lecture hall, and at one of the lecture hall emergency exits. 1940 Ann. Reg. 1939 397 Many of whom [sc. lawyers] were chosen as chairmen of tribunals and committees under one or other of the Emergency Acts. 1944 Living off Land v. 102 Carry an emergency ration in the shape of a tobacco tin of salt and oatmeal, well mixed. 1944 A. Thirkell Headmistress iii. 64 An emergency card for her rations. 1956 A. H. Compton Atomic Quest 259 The fliers returned to an emergency landing at Okinawa. 1961 Lancet 12 Aug. 338/2 Data for the occurrence of disease were derived from the Emergency Bed Service (E.B.S.) of the King Edward Hospital Fund for London. 1970 Ibid. 19 Sept. 604/2 The past decade has seen the establishment of emergency call services to supplement practice rota systems. |