Other forms: buzzers
A buzzer is a device that makes a harsh warning sound. Press the buzzer, the buzzer went, a door buzzer.
It is the flat electric rasp of a door entry system, a quiz show or an oven timer, and it is deliberately unpleasant so that it cannot be ignored. In basketball a buzzer beater is a shot released just before the buzzer ends the period. Note buzz, which is imitative; and that the door buzzer and the door bell differ in that one buzzes and one rings, which is more than a quibble to anybody who has lived under either.
1nounbuzzerA device that makes a harsh warning sound.
“The buzzer sounded to mark the end of the quiz round.”
buzzer is a signalling device.
Middle English
*bussen
English
buzz
English, today
buzzer
Built from
From buzz + -er. buzz comes from Middle English bussen (suggested by bussyng (“buzzing”)), of onomatopoeic origin. Cognate with Scots bizz (“to buzz”). Compare Middle English bunning (“buzzing”), Middle English hossing (“buzzing”), Middle English bissen (“to hush”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA