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Safaa Dalby
What does "This is not a drill" mean?
Sep 15, 2020 7:58 AM
Answers · 26
4
It means "This is not practice." It means it's the real thing. For example, in elementary school, we would practice fire and tornado drills. If we had had a real fire, then the school principal would have said "This is not a drill" to make sure everyone knew it was a real fire and to quickly evacuate the school.
September 15, 2020
4
A drill is a practice session. For example, during a fire drill, the people in the building practise the response to a real fire.
This is not a drill = it's not a practice session, it's the real thing.
September 15, 2020
2
One of the definitions of drill is "to practise". I think it comes from a military term. You used to see "Drill Halls" around - maybe you still do - in which the army would practise their drills (formations/marching/etc).
I guess this usage got passed on to terms like "fire drill" which involves practising for a fire - sort of orderly marching out and lining up to be accounted for.
I suppose this has then become common parlance, so now we say things like:
- This is not a drill (this isn't practise, it is the real thing).
September 15, 2020
it's not a practice it's for real
September 16, 2020
A drill is a practice session for what to do when an emergency alert happens. The emergency alert is specific to the type of emergency: fire, armed attackers, flood, tornado, and so on.
When the emergency alert starts, announcing “this is not a drill” means that the threat is real, and this event is not a practice session.
September 16, 2020
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Safaa Dalby
Language Skills
French
Learning Language
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