bell, book and candle

phrase

An expression denoting excommunication by anathema according to a rite of the Latin Church.

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Meanings

phrase
  1. An expression denoting excommunication by anathema according to a rite of the Latin Church.

    I am afraid Jim Crow was a hardened sinner, and, alas! we had no one on board duly qualified to do for him with "bell, book and candle" what had been done ages before to his ancestor at Rheims.

    1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 36
Cite this entry
APA

bell, book and candle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bell%2C%20book%20and%20candle

MLA

“bell, book and candle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bell%2C%20book%20and%20candle. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bell, book and candle,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bell%2C%20book%20and%20candle.

Source: bell, book and candle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.