bell
English
editPronunciation
editEtymology 1
editFrom Middle English belle, from Old English belle (“bell”), from Proto-Germanic *bellǭ. Cognate with West Frisian belle, bel, Dutch bel, Low German Belle, Bel, Danish bjelde, Swedish bjällra, Norwegian bjelle, Icelandic bjalla.
Noun
editbell (plural bells)
- (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.
- 1848, Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells:
- HEAR the sledges with the bells —
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
- An instrument that emits a ringing sound, situated on a bicycle's handlebar and used by the cyclist to warn of their presence.
- The sounding of a bell as a signal.
- 2011 December 18, Ben Dirs, “Carl Froch outclassed by dazzling Andre Ward”, in BBC Sport[1]:
- 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) The bell character.
- Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
- 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.
- (Scotland, archaic) A bubble.
- 1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet:
- He swam to the place where Mary disappeared but there was neither boil nor gurgle on the water, nor even a bell of departing breath, to mark the place where his beloved had sunk.
- (British, vulgar, slang) Clipping of bell-end (“stupid or contemptible person”).
Synonyms
edit- (in heraldry): campane
- (rare): tintinnabule
Hyponyms
editMeronyms
editHolonyms
edit- (structure housing bells): bell tower, campanile
- (sets of bells): carillon, peal
Coordinate terms
editDerived terms
edit- agogo bell
- alarm bell
- alarm-bell
- altar bell
- Angelus bell
- bear away the bell
- bear the bell
- bell animalcule
- bell arch
- Bell Bar
- bell-bearer
- bell-bind
- bellbind
- bellbird
- bell, book and candle
- bell-bottom, bell-bottomed
- bell-bottomed trousers
- bell bottoms
- bell-bottoms
- bell-bottom trousers
- bellbox
- bellboy
- bell boy
- bell buoy
- bell button
- bell captain
- bellcast
- bell character
- bell chord
- bell-collar
- bell cot
- bellcote
- bell cow
- bell crank
- bellcrank
- bell curve
- bell curve god
- bell deck
- belldom
- belled
- bell-end
- bell end
- bell-faced
- bellflower
- bellfounder
- bell-founder
- bell founder
- bellfounding
- bell frog
- bell gable
- bell-gable
- bellgirl
- bell glide
- Bell Green
- bell heather
- bellhop
- bell hopper
- bellhopper
- bell-horse
- bellhouse
- bell housing
- Bell Island
- bellist
- bell jar
- bell lerp
- bell-like
- belllike
- bell lyra
- bell lyre
- bellmaker
- bellmaking
- bellman
- bell metal
- bell miner (Manorina melanophrys)
- bellmouth
- bell-mouthed
- bell pepper
- bellperson
- bell pit
- bell-pull
- bellpull
- bell punch
- bellpush
- bell push
- bell ringer
- bellringing
- bell-ringing
- bell rope
- bells and smells, smells and bells
- bells and whistles
- bell-shaped
- bell sleeve
- bell-tent
- bell tent
- bell the cat
- bell-topper
- bell tower
- bell trap
- bell tree
- bell up
- bell-wether
- bellwether
- bellwoman
- bell work
- bellwort
- bluebell
- calling bell
- Canterbury bells
- Christmas bells
- church bell
- clear as a bell
- coral bells, coralbells, coral-bells (Heuchera)
- cow bell
- cowbell
- da bell
- dead bell
- death bell
- dinner bell
- diving-bell
- diving bell
- diving bell spider
- division bell
- doorbell
- door-bell
- dressing-bell
- dumbbell
- dumb-bell
- engine bell
- firebell
- fog bell
- forebell
- give someone a bell
- handbell
- harebell (Campanula rotundifolia)
- hawkbell
- heather-bell
- hell's bells
- horse-bell
- jingle bell
- joy bell
- joy-bell
- kettlebell
- larum-bell
- leper's bell
- lose the bell
- lowbell
- low-bell
- magnetobell
- market bell
- Mass bell
- merrybell
- mindfulness bell
- minute bell
- monkey's dinner bell
- mort bell
- mountain bell (Darwinia)
- mule bell
- Oconee bells
- on a bell
- passing-bell
- passing bell
- peal of bells
- pull the other one, it's got bells on
- ring a bell
- ring of bells
- ring one's bell
- ring someone's bell
- sacring-bell
- sacring bell
- saints' bell
- sance bell
- sanctus bell
- sandbell
- save by the bell
- saved by the bell
- seven bells
- sheep-bell
- ship's bells
- shop-bell
- silverbell
- Six Bells
- sledgebell
- sleighbell
- sleigh bell
- snowbell
- soul bell
- sound as a bell
- sunnybell
- swimming bell
- telephone-bell
- tubular bells
- undern-bell
- unring a bell
- warning bell
- wedding bells
- wind-bell
- windbell
- with bells on
- yellow bells
- you can't unring a bell
Descendants
editTranslations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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See also
edit- (study of bells): campanology
- (expert in bells): campanist, campanologist
- (player of bells): bell-ringer, carilloner, carilloneur, carillonist, ringer, tintinnabulary, tintinnabulist
- (playing of bells): bell-ringing, tintinnabulation, tintinnabulism, tintinnation
- (bell-related): campanistic, campanologic, campanarian, tintinnabular, tintinnabular, tintinnabulary, tintinnabulatory, tintinnabulous
- (related to a peal of bells or bell tower): campanilian
- (bell-shaped): bell-shaped, campanal, campaniform, campaniliform, campanular, campanulate, campanulated, campanulous, tintinnabulate
- (containing bells): campaned
- (sounding like a small bell): jingling, tinkling, tintinnabulant, tintinnabulating, tintinnating
Verb
editbell (third-person singular simple present bells, present participle belling, simple past and past participle belled)
- (transitive) To attach a bell to.
- Who will bell the cat?
- (transitive) To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
- to bell a tube
- (slang, transitive) 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.
- (intransitive) To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.
- Hops bell.
Translations
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See also
editEtymology 2
editFrom 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”).
Verb
editbell (third-person singular simple present bells, present participle belling, simple past and past participle belled)
- (intransitive) 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 [...].
- 1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC:
- As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled / Once, twice and again!
- 1872, Robert Browning, Fifine at the Fair[2]:
- You acted part so well, went alɬ-fours upon earth / The live-long day, brayed, belled.
- 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber, published 2005, page 128:
- Then, incredibly, a rutting stag belled by the trunks.
- (transitive) To utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.
- 1591, Edmund Spenser, Astrophel:
- Their leaders bell their bleating tunes In doleful sound.
Derived terms
editTranslations
editNoun
editbell (plural bells)
Translations
editCatalan
editEtymology
editInherited from Latin bellus. Compare Occitan bèll, bèu, French beau, Spanish bello.
Pronunciation
editAdjective
editbell (feminine bella, masculine plural bells, feminine plural belles)
Usage notes
edit- Disused in most dialects because of its homophony with vell (“old”), but still frequently found in literary texts.
Derived terms
editFurther reading
edit- “bell” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “bell”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
- “bell” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “bell” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
Chinese
editEtymology
edit(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation
editVerb
editbell
Derived terms
edit- bell開 / bell开 (Cantonese)
- 鬆bell bell / 松bell bell (Cantonese)
References
edit- Bolton, Kingsley, Hutton, Christopher (2005) A Dictionary of Cantonese Slang: The Language of Hong Kong Movies, Street Gangs and City Life, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, →ISBN, page 19
German
editPronunciation
editAudio: (file)
Verb
editbell
Maltese
editRoot |
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b-l-l |
1 term |
Etymology
editPronunciation
editVerb
editbell (imperfect jbell, past participle miblul)
- to dip (immerse something shortly or partly into a liquid)
Conjugation
editOld English
editNoun
editbell f
- Alternative form of belle
Welsh
editPronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /bɛɬ/
- (South Wales, also) IPA(key): /beːɬ/
Adjective
editbell
- Soft mutation of pell.
Mutation
edit- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɛl
- Rhymes:English/ɛl/1 syllable
- English terms with homophones
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Percussion instruments
- English terms with quotations
- British English
- English informal terms
- English terms with usage examples
- en:Music
- en:Nautical
- en:Computing
- en:Architecture
- Scottish English
- English terms with archaic senses
- English vulgarities
- English slang
- English clippings
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- en:Animal sounds
- en:Bicycle parts
- English calculator words
- Catalan terms inherited from Latin
- Catalan terms derived from Latin
- Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation
- Catalan terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Catalan/eʎ
- Rhymes:Catalan/eʎ/1 syllable
- Catalan terms with homophones
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan adjectives
- Chinese lemmas
- Cantonese lemmas
- Chinese verbs
- Cantonese verbs
- Chinese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Chinese terms written in foreign scripts
- Cantonese Chinese
- Cantonese terms with usage examples
- German terms with audio pronunciation
- German non-lemma forms
- German verb forms
- German colloquialisms
- Maltese terms belonging to the root b-l-l
- Maltese terms inherited from Arabic
- Maltese terms derived from Arabic
- Maltese 1-syllable words
- Maltese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Maltese lemmas
- Maltese verbs
- Maltese form-I verbs
- Maltese geminate form-I verbs
- Maltese geminate verbs
- Old English lemmas
- Old English nouns
- Old English feminine nouns
- Welsh terms with IPA pronunciation
- Welsh non-lemma forms
- Welsh mutated adjectives
- Welsh soft-mutation forms