A distress signal is the call sent when a vessel needs urgent help. Send a distress signal, pick up a distress signal, a distress signal at dawn.
Mayday spoken three times is the spoken form, and it means grave and imminent danger rather than inconvenience. A false distress signal is an offence, since lifeboats and helicopters launch on it.
1noundistress signalThe call sent when a vessel needs urgent help.
“The coastguard logged a distress signal at ten past four.”
distress signal is a signal.
Practised in Sea & Sailing