bellows
UK /ˈbɛl.əʊz/ · US /ˈbɛl.oʊz/ noun, verb, proper noun
Also a form of bellow
Forms bellowses bellowsing bellowsed
- noun A device for delivering pressurized air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location. At its most simple terms a bellows is a container which is deformable in such a way as to alter its volume which has an outlet or outlets where one wishes to blow air. “When wood fires were common, so were bellows for helping start them.”
- noun Any flexible container or enclosure, as one used to cover a moving joint.
- noun (informal or archaic) The lungs.
- noun (photography) Flexible, light-tight enclosures connecting the lensboard and the camera back.
- noun (figurative) That which fans the fire of hatred, jealousy, etc.
- verb (intransitive, transitive) To operate a bellows; to direct air at (something) using a bellows.
- verb (intransitive, figuratively) To expand and contract like a bellows.
- verb (transitive) To fold up like a bellows; to accordion.
- proper noun A surname.
Etymology
From Middle English belwes, plural of belu, belwe, a northern form of beli, from Old English bæliġ, northern form of bielġ, from Proto-Germanic *balgiz. Compare German Balg. See also belly.
For the pronunciation /ˈbɛl.əs/, compare bodice, gallows.
See bellow
Webster’s 1913
- noun An instrument, utensil, or machine, which, by alternate expansion and contraction, or by rise and fall of the top, draws in air through a valve and expels it through a tube for various purposes, as blowing fires, ventilating mines, or filling the pipes of an organ with wind. Bellows camera, in photography, a form of camera, which can be drawn out like an accordion or bellows.
Etymology [OE. bely, below, belly, bellows, AS. bælg, bælig, bag, bellows, belly. Bellows is prop. a pl. and the orig. sense is bag. See Belly.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bellows”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details