smoke signal
Airborne visual communication
A smoke signal is a visible message created by interrupting a column of smoke, used historically by indigenous peoples and others to communicate across distances.
The term now usually appears figuratively for indirect hints or signs of intention: The company's hiring freeze is a smoke signal that layoffs are coming.
To send up smoke signals is to hint at something without stating it directly.
Ornamental feather or rising column
- messageTransmitted communication
- beaconGuiding light source
- transmissionSending of information
- alertWarning or watchfulness
warning · notification · indication · code · relay · hilltop · column · visibility
Ceremonial set of actions
- sacredWorthy of reverence
- ancestorsThose from whom one descends
- indigenousOriginating in a region
- ceremonyFormal event marking occasions
tradition · spiritual · offering · purification · prayer · blessing · invocation · smudging
Morse distress code
- emergencySerious sudden danger
- rescueSave from harm
- survivalRemaining alive against odds
- strandedLeft without means to leave
marooned · shipwrecked · lost · wilderness · castaway · isolation · desperation · visibility
Indirect suggestion
- clueSolving aid
- indicationSign of what's coming
- warning signIndicator of potential danger
- omenProphetic indicator
harbinger · foreshadowing · portent · red flag · telltale · precursor · early warning · suggestion
plume
Ornamental feather or rising column
- messageTransmitted communication
- beaconGuiding light source
- transmissionSending of information
alert · warning · notification · indication · code · relay · hilltop · column · visibility · distance
ritual
Ceremonial set of actions
- sacredWorthy of reverence
- ancestorsThose from whom one descends
- indigenousOriginating in a region
ceremony · tradition · spiritual · offering · purification · prayer · blessing · invocation · smudging · sweetgrass
SOS
Morse distress code
stranded · marooned · shipwrecked · lost · wilderness · castaway · isolation · desperation · visibility · location
hint
Indirect suggestion
- clueSolving aid
- indicationSign of what's coming
- warning signIndicator of potential danger
omen · harbinger · foreshadowing · portent · red flag · telltale · precursor · early warning · suggestion · implication
- ancient communicationhieroglyphs, carrier pigeon, pictographs, pictograms, courier
- distress signalsdistress beacon, distress flare, emergency beacon, rescue beacon, flare
- communicationtelephone, conversation, inform, messages, dialogue
- ways to communicatechat, announcement, gossip, broadcast, small talk
- Pre-electric technologywaterwheel, water wheel, windlass, pulley, plow
- signalssign, waved, nodded, gestured, blinked
smoke signaldigital communication
Information exchange via technology
text message · email · instant message · video call · satellite communication
smoke signaldirect speech
Exact quoted utterance
plain language · formal announcement · formal declaration · written contract
smoke, signal, smoking, smoky, signals, smoker, signaling, signaled, signalize