▪ I. buzzer1
(ˈbʌzə(r))
[f. buzz v.1 + -er1.]
1. An insect that buzzes. Also fig.
| 1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. i. (1623) 311 Swarms of busie Buzzers. 1611 Cotgr., Bourdonneur, a hummer, a buzzer. 1834 Wilson in Blackw. Mag. XXXV. 1006 To keep the buzzers from settling round his eyes. 1847 Fraser's Mag. XXXVI. 524 Greek and Latin literature have been blown upon by the buzzers of metre. |
† 2. A private obtruder of tales. Obs.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iv. v. 90 Her Brother..wants not Buzzers to infect his eare With pestilent Speeches of his Fathers death. |
3. A steam apparatus for making a loud buzzing noise as a signal; cf. hummer, hooter.
| 1870 Echo 17 Jan., Two..steam alarm whistles or ‘buzzers’ were fixed on Saturday. 1872 Jeans West. Worthies 95 No sounds of the ponderous hammer or screeching ‘buzzer’ are to be heard. 1885 Daily News 2 Oct. 2/1. |
4. a. An electric mechanism for producing an intermittent current and a buzzing sound or series of sounds; used chiefly as a call or signal. Also attrib.
| a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Buzzer, a telegraphic call in which a vibrating hammer strikes a sounding piece and gives out a buzzing sound, which, in certain cases, is preferable to a bell. 1901 ‘Linesman’ Words Eyewitness (1902) 203 The little station, with its brave air of business, its stationmaster, and its electric ‘buzzer’. 1916 ‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 183 He could hear the morse signals on the buzzer plain enough. a 1917 E. A. Mackintosh War, the Liberator (1918) 99 If..his bloody barrage-fire's Broken all your buzzer wires Don't get flurried. 1920 Conquest June 404/1 There is a local buzzer-circuit in the call box. 1943 Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 20 The Buzzer, another name for the telephone, and particularly the modern ‘buzz’ boxes or house-phone systems. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 5 Feb. 17/5 Oakland's Ted Hampson and Minnesota's Mike McMahon..scuffled after the final buzzer [in ice hockey]. |
| fig. 1930 H. Nicolson Swinburne i. 11 Although, so to speak, this obstruction exists only on one line of communication, yet it acts as a buzzer which disturbs the rest. |
b. Hence (Services' slang), a signaller.
| 1915 ‘Ian Hay’ First Hundred Thousand vii. 55 One of the Battalion signallers—or ‘buzzers’, as the vernacular has it, in imitation of the buzzing of the Morse instrument. 1917 ‘Taffrail’ Off Shore 1 His friends..refer to him as ‘Buzzer’..because the instruments of which he is the custodian..emit buzzing and humming sounds. |
c. A door-bell. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
| 1934 R. Stout Fer-de-lance xvii. 295 Fritz, the buzzer, attend the front door, please. 1959 ‘J. Welcome’ Stop at Nothing viii. 132 The door buzzer sounded in the hall... She..pressed the button that freed the lock. |
5. Electr. The trembler of an induction coil.
| 1882 W. H. Preece in J. J. Fahie Hist. Wireless Telegr. (1899) 138 Buzzers, little instruments that make and break the current very rapidly with a buzzing sound. 1888 Chambers's Jrnl. 14 Jan. 25 It is called a ‘buzzer’. .. It is a rapid current-breaker. |
▪ II. ˈbuzzer2 Thieves' cant.
[f. buzz v.3 + -er1.]
A pickpocket. (See quot.)
| 1862 Mayhew Crim. Prisons 46 ‘Buzzers’ who pick gentlemen's pockets, and ‘wires’ who pick ladies' pockets. |