BELL

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Bell mean? 

• BELL (noun)
  The noun BELL has 10 senses:

1. a hollow device made of metal that makes a ringing sound when struck

2. a push button at an outer door that gives a ringing or buzzing signal when pushed

3. the sound of a bell being struck

4. (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.

5. the shape of a bell

6. a phonetician and father of Alexander Graham Bell (1819-1905)

7. English painter; sister of Virginia Woolf; prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group (1879-1961)

8. United States inventor (born in Scotland) of the telephone (1847-1922)

9. a percussion instrument consisting of a set of tuned bells that are struck with a hammer; used as an orchestral instrument

10. the flared opening of a tubular device

  Familiarity information: BELL used as a noun is familiar.

• BELL (verb)
  The verb BELL has 1 sense:

1. attach a bell to

  Familiarity information: BELL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BELL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A hollow device made of metal that makes a ringing sound when struck

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("bell" is a kind of...):

acoustic device (a device for amplifying or transmitting sound)

signaling device (a device used to send signals)

Meronyms (parts of "bell"):

sound bow (contact (the part of a bell) against which the clapper strikes)

clapper; tongue (metal striker that hangs inside a bell and makes a sound by hitting the side)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bell"):

cowbell (a bell hung around the neck of cow so that the cow can be easily located)

tocsin; warning bell (a bell used to sound an alarm)

cascabel; sleigh bell (a bell attached to a sleigh, or to the harness of a horse that is pulling a sleigh)

shop bell (a bell attached to the door of a small shop; warns the proprietor that a customer has entered the shop)

sheep bell (a bell hung round the neck of a sheep so that the sheep can be easily located)

school bell (a bell rung to announce beginning or ending of class)

fire bell (a bell rung to give a fire alarm)

electric bell (a bell activated by the magnetic effect of an electric current)

dinner bell (a bell rung to announce that dinner has been served)

death bell; death knell (a bell rung to announce a death)

church bell (a bell in a church tower (usually sounded to summon people to church))

Instance hyponyms:

Liberty Bell (the bell of Independence Hall; rung 8 July 1776 to announce the signing of the Declaration of Independence)

Derivation:

bell (attach a bell to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A push button at an outer door that gives a ringing or buzzing signal when pushed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

bell; buzzer; doorbell

Hypernyms ("bell" is a kind of...):

button; push; push button (an electrical switch operated by pressing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bell"):

night bell (a doorbell to be used at night)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The sound of a bell being struck

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

bell; toll

Context example:

she heard the distant toll of church bells

Hypernyms ("bell" is a kind of...):

sound (the sudden occurrence of an audible event)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bell"):

knell (the sound of a bell rung slowly to announce a death or a funeral or the end of something)

angelus; angelus bell (the sound of a bell rung in Roman Catholic churches to announce the time when the Angelus should be recited)

Derivation:

bell (attach a bell to)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(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.

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

bell; ship's bell

Hypernyms ("bell" is a kind of...):

time unit; unit of time (a unit for measuring time periods)

Domain category:

navigation; sailing; seafaring (the work of a sailor)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The shape of a bell

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

bell; bell shape; campana

Hypernyms ("bell" is a kind of...):

curve; curved shape (the trace of a point whose direction of motion changes)

Sense 6

Meaning:

A phonetician and father of Alexander Graham Bell (1819-1905)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Alexander Melville Bell; Bell; Melville Bell

Instance hypernyms:

phonetician (a specialist in phonetics)

Sense 7

Meaning:

English painter; sister of Virginia Woolf; prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group (1879-1961)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Bell; Vanessa Bell; Vanessa Stephen

Instance hypernyms:

painter (an artist who paints)

Holonyms ("Bell" is a member of...):

Bloomsbury Group (an inner circle of writers and artists and philosophers who lived in or around Bloomsbury early in the 20th century and were noted for their unconventional lifestyles)

Sense 8

Meaning:

United States inventor (born in Scotland) of the telephone (1847-1922)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Alexander Bell; Alexander Graham Bell; Bell

Instance hypernyms:

artificer; discoverer; inventor (someone who is the first to think of or make something)

Sense 9

Meaning:

A percussion instrument consisting of a set of tuned bells that are struck with a hammer; used as an orchestral instrument

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

bell; chime; gong

Hypernyms ("bell" is a kind of...):

percussion instrument; percussive instrument (a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by one object striking another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bell"):

carillon (set of bells hung in a bell tower)

handbell (a bell that is held in the hand)

Sense 10

Meaning:

The flared opening of a tubular device

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("bell" is a kind of...):

opening (a vacant or unobstructed space that is man-made)

Holonyms ("bell" is a part of...):

blunderbuss (a short musket of wide bore with a flared muzzle)

funnel (a conically shaped utensil having a narrow tube at the small end; used to channel the flow of substances into a container with a small mouth)

wind; wind instrument (a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by an enclosed column of air that is moved by bellows or the human breath)

• BELL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they bell    ... he / she / it bells   
Past simple: belled   
Past participle: belled   
-ing form: belling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Attach a bell to

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

bell cows

Hypernyms (to "bell" is one way to...):

attach (cause to be attached)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

bell (a hollow device made of metal that makes a ringing sound when struck)

bell (the sound of a bell being struck)

 Context examples 

She fell back against the wall with shriek after shriek of laughter, while I, horrified at this sudden hysterical attack, rushed to the bell to summon help.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her hand was on the bell, but she had forborne to ring it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Wolf! Wolf! Here Wolf!" she called, as they left the clearing and took the trail that led down through the waxen-belled manzanita jungle to the county road.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

On the morning of the third day, shortly after eight bells, a cry that the boat was sighted came down from Smoke at the masthead.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which had formerly been in part my own.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Somewhere near, a passing bell was tolling; the dogs all round the neighbourhood were howling; and in our shrubbery, seemingly just outside, a nightingale was singing.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Lydia, my love, ring the bell—I must speak to Hill this moment.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

And such a voice!—delicate and sweet, like a strain of music heard far off and faint, or, better, like a bell of silver, a perfect tone, crystal-pure.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“Why, from about noon observation to about six bells.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The door, which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered and distained.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)