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Wiktionary

bell

See also: Bell, bèll, and bell'

English

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A large bell
 
A bicycle bell
 
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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English belle, from Old English belle (“bell”), from Proto-Germanic *bellǭ. Cognate with West Frisian belle, bel, Dutch bel, Low German Belle, Bel, Danish bjelde, Swedish bjällra, Norwegian bjelle, Icelandic bjalla.

Noun

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bell (plural bells)

  2. (music) 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!
  3. An instrument that emits a ringing sound, situated on a bicycle's handlebar and used by the cyclist to warn of their presence.
  4. The sounding of a bell as a signal.
    • 2011 December 18, Ben Dirs, “Carl Froch outclassed by dazzling Andre Ward”, in BBC Sport‎[1]:
      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.
  6. (chiefly British, informal) A telephone call.
    I’ll give you a bell later.
  7. A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
  8. (music) The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
  9. (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)
  10. The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.
  11. (computing) The bell character.
    Synonyms: alert, beep, \a
  12. Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.
  13. (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.
  14. (Scotland, archaic) A bubble.
    • 1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet:
      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.
  15. (British, vulgar, slang) Clipping of bell-end (“stupid or contemptible person”).
Synonyms
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Hyponyms
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Kinds of bell (noun)
Meronyms
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Holonyms
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Coordinate terms
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Terms coordinate with bell (noun)
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • → Fiji Hindi: belo
  • → Japanese: ベル (beru)
  • → Korean: 벨 (bel)
Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
See also
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Verb

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bell (third-person singular simple present bells, present participle belling, simple past and past participle belled)

  1. (transitive) To attach a bell to.
    Who will bell the cat?
  2. (transitive) To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
    to bell a tube
  3. (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.
  4. (intransitive) To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.
    Hops bell.
Translations
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See also
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English bellen, from Old English bellan (“to bellow; make a hollow noise; roar; bark; grunt”), from Proto-Germanic *bellaną (“to sound; roar; bark”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to sound; roar; bark”). Cognate with Scots bell (“to shout; speak loudly”), Dutch bellen (“to ring”), German Low German bellen (“to ring”), German bellen (“to bark”), Swedish böla (“to low; bellow; roar”).

Verb

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bell (third-person singular simple present bells, present participle belling, simple past and past participle belled)

  1. (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 [...].
    • 1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC:
      As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled / Once, twice and again!
    • 1872, Robert Browning, Fifine at the Fair‎[2]:
      You acted part so well, went alɬ-fours upon earth / The live-long day, brayed, belled.
    • 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber, published 2005, page 128:
      Then, incredibly, a rutting stag belled by the trunks.
  2. (transitive) To utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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bell (plural bells)

  1. The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.
Translations
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Catalan

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Etymology

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Inherited from Latin bellus. Compare Occitan bèll, bèu, French beau, Spanish bello.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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bell (feminine bella, masculine plural bells, feminine plural belles)

  1. (literary or dialectal) beautiful
    Synonyms: ben plantat, bonic, bufó, formós, maco, preciós

Usage notes

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  • Disused in most dialects because of its homophony with vell (“old”), but still frequently found in literary texts.

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Chinese

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Etymology

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

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Verb

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bell

  1. (Cantonese) to nudge; to shove

Derived terms

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References

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  • Bolton, Kingsley, Hutton, Christopher (2005) A Dictionary of Cantonese Slang: The Language of Hong Kong Movies, Street Gangs and City Life, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, →ISBN, page 19

German

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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bell

  1. singular imperative of bellen
  2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of bellen

Maltese

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Root
b-l-l
1 term

Etymology

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From Arabic بَلَّ (balla).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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bell (imperfect jbell, past participle miblul)

  1. to dip (immerse something shortly or partly into a liquid)

Conjugation

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    Conjugation of bell
singular plural
1st person 2nd person 3rd person 1st person 2nd person 3rd person
perfect m bellejt bellejt bell bellejna bellejtu bellew
f bellet
imperfect m nbell tbell jbell nbellu tbellu jbellu
f tbell
imperative bell bellu

Old English

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Noun

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bell f

  1. Alternative form of belle

Welsh

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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bell

  1. Soft mutation of pell.

Mutation

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Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
pell bell mhell phell
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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