panic stations

British

plural noun

informal a state of alarm; panicky reaction

when he realized he'd lost the keys it was panic stations

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"It's certainly not panic stations," said Ten Doeschate, who hinted there could be discussions about India's batting line-up.

From Barron's

"When you look at the way they're playing right now they're not the same team as last year. You can see the chemistry is not right at this present moment in this time - but they have plenty of time to get it right. It's not panic stations."

From BBC

"Everybody else was panic stations, but we still needed to win this game whether we beat France or not and we knew that," said Walsh.

From BBC

England was at panic stations and fortunate that Samoa’s next two tries were ruled out by the barest of margins.

From Washington Times

All of a sudden, it was panic stations.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023