chime
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English chime, chim, chimbe, chymbe, a shortening of chimbelle (misinterpreted as chymme-belle, chimbe-belle), from Old English ċimbala, ċimbal (“cymbal”), from Latin cymbalum.
Noun
chime (plural chimes)
- (music) A musical instrument producing a sound when struck, similar to a bell (e.g. a tubular metal bar) or actually a bell. Often used in the plural to refer to the set: the chimes.
- Hugo had a recording of someone playing the chimes against a background of surf noise that she found calming.
- Sylvia was a chime player in the school orchestra.
- An individual ringing component of such a set.
- Peter removed the C♯ chime from its mounting so that he could get at the dust that had accumulated underneath.
- A small bell or other ringing or tone-making device as a component of some other device.
- The professor had stuffed a wad of gum into the chime of his doorbell so that he wouldn't be bothered.
- The sound of such an instrument or device.
- The copier gave a chime to indicate that it had finished printing.
- Chimes sing Sunday morn.
- A small hammer or other device used to strike a bell.
- Strike the bell with the brass chime hanging on the chain next to it.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
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Verb
chime (third-person singular simple present chimes, present participle chiming, simple past and past participle chimed)
- (intransitive) To make the sound of a chime.
- The microwave chimed to indicate that it was done cooking.
- I got up for lunch as soon as the wall clock began chiming noon.
- (transitive) To cause to sound in harmony; to play a tune, as upon a set of bells; to move or strike in harmony.
- 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- And chime their sounding hammers.
- (transitive) To utter harmoniously; to recite rhythmically.
- 1809, Lord Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers:
- Chime his childish verse.
- (intransitive) To agree; to correspond.
- The other lab's results chimed with mine, so I knew we were on the right track with the research.
- 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC:
- Everything chimed in with such a humor.
- To make a rude correspondence of sounds; to jingle, as in rhyming.
- a. 1667, Abraham Cowley, Ode Upon Liberty:
- It shall not keep one settled pace of time,
In the same tune it shall not always chime
Derived terms
Translations
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Etymology 2
Noun
chime (plural chimes)
- Alternative form of chine (“edge of a cask; part of a ship; etc.”)
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “chime”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
Anagrams
Irish
Noun
chime m
- Lenited form of cime.
Japanese
Romanization
chime
Spanish
Verb
chime
- inflection of chimar:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/aɪm
- Rhymes:English/aɪm/1 syllable
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Latin
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Musical instruments
- English terms with usage examples
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with quotations
- en:Sounds
- en:Percussion instruments
- Irish non-lemma forms
- Irish mutated nouns
- Irish lenited forms
- Japanese non-lemma forms
- Japanese romanizations
- Spanish non-lemma forms
- Spanish verb forms