panic button

English

Noun

panic button (plural panic buttons)

1. An emergency button which, when pressed, alerts authorities of danger or triggers an alarm system.
   • 2016 May 9, Katie Rogers, “India’s Answer to Sex Attacks? Panic Buttons and GPS on All Phones”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Officials in India hope to combat the threat of sexual violence against women and girls by requiring panic buttons to be installed in every new phone by January, and for every phone to be equipped with GPS by 2018.

2. (computing) Synonym of boss key
   • 2023 December 14, Tom Warren, “Opera’s gamer browser now has a “panic button” for when you’re caught in the act”, in The Verge‎^[2], retrieved 2023-12-16:

     To enable the panic button you’ll need to toggle the “early bird” option in the settings of the Opera GX browser.

Derived terms

• press the panic button