bell

plural bells

1. entertainmentA 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 bell which called the pupils to their lessons can still be seen on the roof.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 269, about a school in Lower Peover

   1 more example

   HEAR the sledges with the bells — Silver bells! What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

   1848, Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells

   Synonyms: campane

2. An instrument that emits a ringing sound, situated on a bicycle's handlebar and used by the cyclist to warn of their presence.
3. The sounding of a bell as a signal.

   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.

   2011 December 18, Ben Dirs, “Carl Froch outclassed by dazzling Andre Ward”, in BBC Sport

4. UKinformalA telephone call.

   I’ll give you a bell later.

5. A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
6. entertainmentThe flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
7. nauticalAny of a series of strokes on a bell (or similar), struck every half hour to indicate the time (within a four hour watch)
8. The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.
9. computingThe bell character.

   Synonyms: alert, beep, mul:\a

10. Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.

    In a cowslip's bell I lie.

    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]

11. architectureThe 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.
12. The rounded upper part of a jellyfish.
13. ScotlandarchaicA bubble.

    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.

    1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet

14. UKabbreviationclippingslangvulgarClipping of bell-end (“stupid or contemptible person”).

present singular third person bells · participle present belling · participle past belled · past belled

1. transitiveTo attach a bell to.

   Who will bell the cat?

2. transitiveTo shape so that it flares out like a bell.

   to bell a tube

3. slangtransitiveTo telephone.

   "Vinny, you tosser, it's Keith. I thought you were back today. I'm in town. Bell us on the mobile.

   2006, Dominic Lavin, Last Seen in Bangkok

4. intransitiveTo develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.

   Hops bell.

5. To ring a bell.

   So that the Euston signalman may be advised of approaching trains as soon as possible, the Camden signalman sets up and transmits the description of each train immediately after it is belled to him.

   1955 March, “Train Describers at Euston”, in Railway Magazine, page 169

present singular third person bells · participle present belling · participle past belled · past belled

1. intransitiveTo bellow or roar.

   Then, incredibly, a rutting stag belled by the trunks.

   1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber, published 2005, page 128

   3 more examples

   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 […].

   1774, Oliver Goldsmith, A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature

   As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled / Once, twice and again!

   1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC

   You acted part so well, went alɬ-fours upon earth / The live-long day, brayed, belled.

   1872, Robert Browning, Fifine at the Fair

2. transitiveTo utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.

   Their leaders bell their bleating tunes In doleful sound.

   1591, Edmund Spenser, Astrophel

plural bells

1. The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.

plural Bells

1. countableuncountableA surname of Scottish and northern English origin for a bell ringer, bellmaker, or from someone who lived "at the Bell (inn)."

   1 more example

   “As far as I’m concerned, wives come and go, but Weezers are forever. And if Rivers [Cuomo] doesn’t realize that, then maybe he just doesn’t understand what being a Weezer is all about.” At press time, an increasingly frustrated Bell had reportedly announced plans to split off from the group and pursue projects as a solo Weezer.

   2015 June 1, The Onion Staff, “Disgruntled Bandmates Worried Rivers Cuomo’s Wife Becoming The Fifth Weezer”, in The Onion, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2024, retrieved 09 Dec 2025

2. countableuncountableThe Bell telephone company (after Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.)
3. countableuncountableA male given name transferred from the surname, of occasional usage.
4. countableuncountableA female given name, variant of Belle; mostly used as a middle name in the 19th century.

   Here, Isabel, here is the good gentleman’s handkerchief; keep it for him now, till he comes to see little Bell again.

   1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities

   1 more example

   […] I found that her Christian name was Isabella, which they shortened into Bell, and that the name of the deceased non-commissioned officer was Tott. Being the kind of neat little woman it was natural to make a toy of—I never saw a woman so like a toy in my life—she had got the plaything name of Belltott. In short, she had no other name on the island.

   1857, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in The Perils of Certain English Prisoners

5. A number of places in the United States:
   1. countableuncountableA city in Los Angeles County, California.
   2. countableuncountableA town in Gilchrist County, Florida.
   3. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Logan County, Illinois.
   4. countableuncountableA census-designated place in Adair County, Oklahoma.
   5. countableuncountableA town in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.
   6. countableuncountableThree townships in Pennsylvania.
6. countableuncountableA village in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
7. countableuncountableA village in the City of Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia.
8. countableuncountableA rural town in Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia.
9. countableuncountableA municipality of Mayen-Koblenz district, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
10. countableuncountableA municipality of Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis district, Rhineland-Palatinate.

plural Bells

1. CanadaUSa telephone utility; a Baby Bell.