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bell - What does it mean?

Definition of 'bell'

English

(wikipedia)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

Noun

(en-noun)
  • A percussive instrument made of metal or other hard material, typically but not always in the shape of an inverted cup with a flared rim, which resonates when struck.
  • * 1848 , Edgar Allan Poe, "(The Bells)"
    • HEAR the sledges with the bells —
    Silver bells !
    What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
  • The sounding of a bell as a signal.
  • * {{quote-news|year=2011
    • |date=December 18 |author=Ben Dirs |title=Carl Froch outclassed by dazzling Andre Ward |work=BBC Sport citation |page= |passage=Referee Steve Smoger was an almost invisible presence in the ring as both men went at it, although he did have a word with Froch when he landed with a shot after the bell at the end of the eighth.}}
  • (chiefly|British|informal) A telephone call.
    • I’ll give you a bell later.
  • A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
  • (music) The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
  • (nautical) Any of a series of strokes on a bell (or similar), struck every half hour to indicate the time (within a four hour watch)
  • The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.
  • (computing) A device control code that produces a beep (or rings a small electromechanical bell on older teleprinters etc.).
  • Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.
  • * Shakespeare
    • In a cowslip's bell I lie.
  • (architecture) The part of the capital of a column included between the abacus and neck molding; also used for the naked core of nearly cylindrical shape, assumed to exist within the leafage of a capital.
    • Derived terms
    * * bell curve * bellbottoms * bellflower * bell-ringer * bell tower (rel-mid3) * * bicycle bell * bluebell * church bell * doorbell (rel-mid3) * handbell * harebell * ring someone's bell * saved by the bell * sound as a bell * with bells on (rel-bottom)
    See also
    * alarm * buzz * buzzer * carillon * chime * clapper * curfew * dinger * ding-dong * gong * peal * ringer * siren * tintinnabulum * tocsin * toll * vesper

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To attach a bell to.
    • Who will bell the cat?
  • To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
    • to bell a tube
  • (slang) To telephone.
  • * 2006 , Dominic Lavin, Last Seen in Bangkok
    • "Vinny, you tosser, it's Keith. I thought you were back today. I'm in town. Bell us on the mobile.''
  • To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.
    • Hops bell .

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m). Cognate with (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To bellow or roar.
  • * 1774 , Oliver Goldsmith, A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature :
    • This animal is said to harbour'' in the place where he resides. When he cries, he is said to ''bell'' ; the print of his hoof is called the ''slot''; his tail is called the ''single''; his excrement the ''fumet''; his horns are called his ''head [...].
  • * (rfdate) Rudyard Kipling
    • As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled / Once, twice and again!
  • * 1955 , William Golding, The Inheritors , Faber and Faber 2005, page 128:
    • Then, incredibly, a rutting stag belled by the trunks.

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.

    • Similar to 'bell'

    bbl, bel, bull, ball, bol, bil, bill, bowel, bowl, boil, bail, boll, biol, bawl, buhl, bool, beal, boul, bael