Definition of "siren"

siren

/ˈsaɪəɹən/

noun
plural sirens or sirenes
1. (Greek mythology) One of a group of nymphs who lured mariners to their death on the rocks.
  Quotations
  Now give ear to what I'm about to say to you , and a god himself will bring it before your mind . First , you will come to the Sirens . These beings enthrall all men who arrive before them . Whoever draws near without knowledge and ...
  2008 October 7, Homer, The Odyssey‎, North Atlantic Books, page 278
2. One who sings sweetly and charms.
3. A dangerously seductive woman.
4. A member of Sirenia, an order of mammals.
5. A member of a genus of aquatic salamanders of the family Sirenidae, commonly used for all species in the family Sirenidae.
6. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Hestina.
7. A device, either mechanical or electronic, that makes a piercingly loud sound as an alarm or signal, or the sound from such a device (first recorded 1879).
  Quotations
  My attention was diverted from this sight by a furious yelling, like that of the thing called a siren in our manufacturing towns.
  1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 103
  There goes the siren that warns of the air raid / Then comes the sound of the guns sending flak / Out for the scramble we've got to get airborne / Got to get up for the coming attack.
  1984, Steve Harris, "Aces High", Iron Maiden, Powerslave.
8. (music) A musical instrument, one of the few aerophones in the percussion section of the symphony orchestra (patented as Acme Siren in 1895).
9. An instrument for demonstrating the laws of beats and combination tones.
10. (astronomy, astrophysics) An astrophysical event that can be used for calculating cosmic distances.
  Quotations
  2017, B.P. Abbott, “A gravitational-wave standard siren measurement of the Hubble constant”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎
verb
third-person singular simple present sirens, present participle sirening, simple past and past participle sirened
1. To make a noise with, or as if with, a siren.
adjective
1. Relating to or like a siren.