Definition of "bell"

bell¹

/bɛl/

noun
plural bells
1. 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.
  Quotations
  HEAR the sledges with the bells —Silver bells!What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
  1848, Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells
2. An instrument that emits a ringing sound, situated on a bicycle's handlebar and used by the cyclist to warn of his or her presence.
3. The sounding of a bell as a signal.
  Quotations
  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. (chiefly Britain, informal) A telephone call.
5. A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
6. (music) The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
7. (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)
8. The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.
9. (computing) The bell character.
10. Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.
  Quotations
  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, [Act V, scene i]
11. (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.
12. (Scotland, archaic) A bubble.
  Quotations
  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
verb
third-person singular simple present bells, present participle belling, simple past and past participle belled
1. (transitive) To attach a bell to.
2. (transitive) To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
3. (slang, transitive) To telephone.
  Quotations
  "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. (intransitive) To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.

bell²

/bɛl/

verb
third-person singular simple present bells, present participle belling, simple past and past participle belled
1. (intransitive) To bellow or roar.
  Quotations
  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
  You acted part so well, went alɬ-fours upon earth / The live-long day, brayed, belled.
  1872, Robert Browning, Fifine at the Fair‎
  Then, incredibly, a rutting stag belled by the trunks.
  1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber, published 2005, page 128
2. (transitive) To utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.
  Quotations
  Their leaders bell their bleating tunes In doleful sound.
  1591, Edmund Spenser, Astrophel
noun
plural bells
1. The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.

Definition of "bell"

bell1

noun

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bell2

verb

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noun

bell¹

bell²