Forms: 6 tocksaine, 7 tocquesain, toxin, 8 toczin, 8– tocsin. [a. F. tocsin, in OF. toquassen (1372 in Godef., Compl.), toquesin, -sain, -saint (16th c.), etc.; ad. Prov. tocasenh, f. toca-r (F. touche-r) to TOUCH, strike + senh ‘signe, marque, appel de la cloche, cloche’:—L. signum sign, in later Latin also a bell; ‘campana, nola, Italis Segno’ (Du Cange).]
1. A signal, esp. an alarm-signal, sounded by ringing a bell or bells: used orig. and esp. in reference to France.
1586. Fulke, Answ. to P. Frarine, 52. The priests then went vp into the steeple, and rang the bells backward, which they call Tocksaine, whereupon the people of the suburbs flocked togither.
1603. Dekker, Wonderfull Yeare, Wks. (Grosart), I. 110. The Allarum is strucke vp, the Toxin ringes out for life.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, I. II. 89. At the same time that the Assault began, the Tocquesain rung throughout all the Churches in the City.
1795. Hel. M. Williams, Lett. France, II. 13. The signal for ringing that fatal tocsin, which was the knell of liberty.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. V. v. The tocsin … is pealing madly from all steeples.
1861. Stanley, East. Ch., xii. (1869), 409. They rang a tocsin with the great bell of the ancient Novgorod.
b. fig.
1794. J. Stewart (title) The Tocsin of Britannia. Ibid. (1802) (title), The Tocsin of Social Life.
1803. Fessenden, Terrible Tractoration, IV. ii. Sound Discord’s jarring tocsin louder.
1832. A. Clarke, in Life, xv. (1840), 572. He thought the seizure in my foot would turn to an attack of gout. This was a tocsin to me.
1877. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., Introd. 12. The tocsins of immemorial strife were sounding all about.
2. transf. A bell used to sound an alarm.
1842. Longf., Belfry of Bruges, xvii. The wild alarum sounded from the tocsin’s throat.
1868. Milman, St. Paul’s, iii. 63. The great bell of St. Paul’s was the tocsin which summoned the citizens to arms.
1890. Lecky, Eng. in 18th C., VIII. xxix. 60. Tocsins or alarm bells were set up in various parts of the town.
3. attrib., as tocsin bell, note, sound.
1822. Byron, Juan, VI. lxxxiv. When all around rang like a tocsin bell.
1878. H. Phillips, trans. Poems fr. Spanish & Germ., 19. And Baeza’s tocsin note Bellows forth from brazen throat.
1900. A. Upward, Eben. Lobb, 178. What meaning has the tocsin sound of liberty for ears like yours?
