bell

Meanings

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.
• The sounding of a bell as a signal.
• A telephone call.
• A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
• The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
• 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.
• The bell character.
• Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.
• 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.
• An instrument situated on a bicycle's handlebar, used by the cyclist to warn of his or her presence.
• A bubble.
• The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.

Verb

• To attach a bell to.
• To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
• To telephone.
• To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.
• To bellow or roar.
• To utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.

Related

Similar words

• campane
• tintinnabule

Narrower meaning words

• bicycle bell
• bridle-bell
• campane
• campana
• campanel, campanella
• cascabel
• church bell
• codon
• corrigiunculum, corrigiuncula
• crotal
• curfew, curfew-bell
• doorbell
• dinner-bell
• dupla
• handbell
• jingle bell
• nola
• peal
• petasius
• signum, signum bell
• squilla
• tintinnabulum
• tocsin
• vesper, vesper-bell

Origin

• From 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.
• 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 bark"), German Low German bellen ("to ring"), German bellen ("to bark"), Swedish böla ("to low; bellow; roar").