bell
/bɛl/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms bells belling belled
- noun (music) 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.
- noun An instrument that emits a ringing sound, situated on a bicycle's handlebar and used by the cyclist to warn of their presence.
- noun The sounding of a bell as a signal.
- noun (chiefly UK, informal) A telephone call. “I’ll give you a bell later.”
- noun A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
- noun (music) The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
- noun (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)
- noun The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.
- verb (transitive) To attach a bell to. “Who will bell the cat?”
- verb (transitive) To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
- verb (slang, transitive) To telephone.
- verb (intransitive) To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom. “Hops bell.”
- verb To ring a bell.
- verb (intransitive) To bellow or roar.
- verb (transitive) To utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.
- noun The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.
- proper noun A surname of Scottish and northern English origin for a bell ringer, bellmaker, or from someone who lived "at the Bell (inn)."
- proper noun The Bell telephone company (after Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.)
- proper noun A male given name transferred from the surname, of occasional usage.
- proper noun A female given name, variant of Belle; mostly used as a middle name in the 19th century.
Synonyms
campane alert beep mul:\a tintinnabule doorbell buzzer toll ship's bell bell shape campana Melville Bell Alexander Melville Bell Vanessa Bell Vanessa Stephen Alexander Bell Alexander Graham Bell chime gong
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English belle, from Old English belle, from Proto-West Germanic *bellā, from Proto-Germanic *bellǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-.
Cognate with West Frisian belle, bel (“bell”), Dutch bel (“bell”), Low German Belle, Bel (“bell”), Danish bjælde (“bell”), Faroese bjølla (“bell”), Icelandic bjalla (“bell”), Norwegian bjelle (“bell”), Swedish bjällra (“bell”).
From Middle English bellen, from Old English bellan (“to bellow; make a hollow noise; roar; bark; grunt”), from Proto-Germanic *bellaną (“to sound; roar; bark”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to sound; roar; bark”). Cognate with Scots bell (“to shout; speak loudly”), Dutch bellen (“to ring”), German Low German bellen (“to ring”), German bellen (“to bark”), Swedish böla (“to low; bellow; roar”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A hollow metallic vessel, usually shaped somewhat like a cup with a flaring mouth, containing a clapper or tongue, and giving forth a ringing sound on being struck.
- noun A hollow perforated sphere of metal containing a loose ball which causes it to sound when moved.
- verb To put a bell upon; as, to bell the cat.
- verb To make bell-mouthed; as, to bell a tube.
Etymology [AS. belle, fr. bellan to bellow. See Bellow.]
Etymology [AS. bellan. See Bellow.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bell”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details