three-finger salute

English

Noun

three-finger salute (plural three-finger salutes)

1. (computing, humorous) Control-Alt-Delete, a keypress used to reset or interrupt the computer.
   • 1986, February 25, Charles Petzold, PC Magazine, volume 5, number 4, article "Operating in a New Environment":

     THE THREE-FINGER SALUTE … to suddenly find that your keyboard is frozen or to watching the screen fill up with garbage. You may not even be aware of the two different types of crashes, the soft crash (recoverable by the three-finger salute, Ctrl-Alt-Del) or the hard crash (big red switch and count to 5 slowly).

See also

• one-finger salute
• two-finger salute