bell

Meanings

Plural: bells

Noun

• a hollow device made of metal that makes a ringing sound when struck
• a push button at an outer door that gives a ringing or buzzing signal when pushed
• the sound of a bell being struck
  • "saved by the bell"
  • "she heard the distant toll of church bells"
• (nautical) each of the eight half-hour units of nautical time signaled by strokes of a ship's bell; eight bells signals 4:00, 8:00, or 12:00 o'clock, either a.m. or p.m.
• the shape of a bell
• a phonetician and father of Alexander Graham Bell (1819-1905)
• English painter; sister of Virginia Woolf; prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group (1879-1961)
• United States inventor (born in Scotland) of the telephone (1847-1922)
• a percussion instrument consisting of a set of tuned bells that are struck with a hammer; used as an orchestral instrument
• the flared opening of a tubular device
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• A bubble.
• Clipping of bell-end (“stupid or contemptible person”).
• The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.

Verb

• attach a bell to
  • "bell cows"
• 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 ring a bell.
• To bellow or roar.
• To utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.

Synonyms

alert, Alexander Bell, Alexander Graham Bell, Alexander Melville Bell, beep, bell shape, buzzer, campana, campane, chime, doorbell, gong, Melville Bell, mul:\a, ship's bell, tintinnabule, toll, Vanessa Bell, Vanessa Stephen

Related Words

bell out, bell-ringer, bell-ringing, bell-shaped, campanal, campanarian, campaned, campaniform, campanilian, campaniliform, campanist, campanistic, campanologic, campanologist, campanular, campanulate, campanulated, campanulous, carilloner, carilloneur, carillonist, jingling, ringer, study of bells, tinkling, tintinnabulant, tintinnabular, tintinnabulary, tintinnabulate, tintinnabulating, tintinnabulation, tintinnabulatory, tintinnabulism, tintinnabulist, tintinnabulous, tintinnating, tintinnation