* IPA(key): /bɛl/ * Rhymes: -ɛl

From Middle English _belle_, from Old English _belle_ (“bell”), from Proto-Germanic _*bellǭ_, from Proto-Indo-European _*bʰel-_ (“to sound, resound, talk, roar, bello”). Cognate with West Frisian _belle_, _bel_ (“bell”), Dutch _bel_ (“bell”), Low German _Belle_, _Bel_ (“bell”), Danish _bjelde_ (“bell”), Swedish _bjälla_ (“bell”), Norwegian _bjelle_ (“bell”), Icelandic _bjalla_ (“bell”). NOUN BELL (_plural_ BELLS) * 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. * 1848, Edgar Allan Poe, "The Bells" _HEAR the sledges with the BELLS —_ _Silver BELLS!_ _What a world of merriment their melody foretells!_ * The sounding of a bell as a signal. * (chiefly UK, informal) A telephone call. _I’ll give you a BELL later._ * A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending. * (music) The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument. * (nautical) 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. * (computing) A device control code that produces a beep (or rings a small electromechanical bell on older teleprinters etc.). * Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower. * Shakespeare In a cowslip's BELL I lie. * (architecture) 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. DERIVED TERMS SEE ALSO * alarm * buzz * buzzer * carillon * chime * clapper * curfew * dinger * ding-dong * gong * peal * ringer * siren * tintinnabulum * tocsin * toll * vesper TRANSLATIONS VERB BELL (_third-person singular simple present_ BELLS, _present participle_ BELLING, _simple past and past participle_ BELLED) * (transitive) To attach a bell to. _Who will bell the cat?_ * To shape so that it flares out like a bell. _to BELL a tube_ * (slang, transitive) To telephone. * 2006, Dominic Lavin, _Last Seen in Bangkok_ "Vinny, you tosser, it's Keith. I thought you were back today. I'm in town. BELL us on the mobile. * (intransitive) To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom. _Hops BELL._ TRANSLATIONS

From Old English _bellan_. Cognate with German _bellen_ (“to bark”). VERB BELL (_third-person singular simple present_ BELLS, _present participle_ BELLING, _simple past and past participle_ BELLED) * (intransitive) To bellow or roar. * 1774, Oliver Goldsmith, _A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature_: 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_ [...]. * (Can we date this quote?) Rudyard Kipling As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled / Once, twice and again! * 1955, William Golding, _The Inheritors_, Faber and Faber 2005, page 128: Then, incredibly, a rutting stag BELLED by the trunks. TRANSLATIONS NOUN BELL (_plural_ BELLS) * The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut. TRANSLATIONS

From Latin _bellus_.

BELL m (_feminine_ BELLA, _masculine plural_ BELLS, _feminine plural_ BELLES) * beautiful RELATED TERMS * bellament _adv_ * bellesa f

* Institut d'Estudis Catalans (1995). _Diccionari de la llengua catalana_ (4ta. edició). ISBN 84-412-2477-3.

BELL * Imperative singular of _bellen_. * (colloquial)First-person singular present of _bellen_.