bell Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a hollow device made of metal that makes a ringing sound when struck
  2. noun a push button at an outer door that gives a ringing or buzzing signal when pushed
    buzzer; doorbell.
  3. noun the sound of a bell being struck
    toll.
    • saved by the bell
    • she heard the distant toll of church bells
  4. noun (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.
    ship's bell.
  5. noun the shape of a bell
    campana; bell shape.
  6. noun a phonetician and father of Alexander Graham Bell (1819-1905)
    Alexander Melville Bell; Melville Bell.
  7. noun English painter; sister of Virginia Woolf; prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group (1879-1961)
    Vanessa Stephen; Vanessa Bell.
  8. noun United States inventor (born in Scotland) of the telephone (1847-1922)
    Alexander Graham Bell; Alexander Bell.
  9. noun a percussion instrument consisting of a set of tuned bells that are struck with a hammer; used as an orchestral instrument
    chime; gong.
  10. noun the flared opening of a tubular device
  11. verb attach a bell to
    • bell cows

WordNet

Bell noun
Etymology
AS. belle, fr. bellan to bellow. See Bellow.
Definitions
  1. A hollow metallic vessel, usually shaped somewhat like a cup with a flaring mouth, containing a clapper or tongue, and giving forth a ringing sound on being struck. ✍ Bells have been made of various metals, but the best have always been, as now, of an alloy of copper and tin.
  2. A hollow perforated sphere of metal containing a loose ball which causes it to sound when moved.
  3. Anything in the form of a bell, as the cup or corol of a flower. "In a cowslip's bell I lie." Shak.
  4. (Arch.) That 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.
  5. pl. (Naut.) The strikes of the bell which mark the time; or the time so designated. ✍ On shipboard, time is marked by a bell, which is struck eight times at 4, 8, and 12 o'clock. Half an hour after it has struck "eight bells" it is struck once, and at every succeeding half hour the number of strokes is increased by one, till at the end of the four hours, which constitute a watch, it is struck eight times. Shak. ✍ Bell is much used adjectively or in combinations; as, bell clapper; bell foundry; bell hanger; bell-mouthed; bell tower, etc., which, for the most part, are self-explaining.
Bell transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Belled present participle & verbal noun Belling
Definitions
  1. To put a bell upon; as, to bell the cat.
  2. To make bell-mouthed; as, to bell a tube.
Bell intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom; as, hops bell.
Bell transitive verb
Etymology
AS. bellan. See Bellow.
Definitions
  1. To utter by bellowing. Obs.
Bell intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To call or bellow, as the deer in rutting time; to make a bellowing sound; to roar.
    As loud as belleth wind in hell. Chaucer.
    The wild buck bells from ferny brake. Sir W. Scott.

Webster 1913