bell

Less common meanings

4. 4
   horn openingnouncountable

   The flared opening at the end of a brass or woodwind instrument.

   The trombonist aimed the bell of his instrument at the back row.

   A mute fits snugly into the bell to soften the trumpet's sound.

   Note

   The name comes from the shape: the flared mouth where the tube of a brass or woodwind instrument ends. It is where the vibrating air column meets the open air, so it shapes the tone that leaves the instrument. That is why a mute is fitted into it and why a trombonist aims it at the hall. The same flare in plumbing is the pipe-joint bell. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • The bell is the flared opening at the end of a brass or woodwind instrument. en.wiktionary.org
   • The bell connects the vibrating air inside the instrument with the outside air and affects the emitted tone. en.wikipedia.org
   • A mute can be fitted into the bell to alter the instrument's sound. usa.yamaha.com
   • A trombone's bell directs its sound toward the audience. phys.unsw.edu.au
   • A flared pipe end used in a joint is also called a bell. pei.org
5. 5
   phone callnouncolloquialBritishcountable

   A telephone call placed to someone.

   Give us a bell when you're free and we'll sort out the details.

   He gave his mum a bell to let her know the train was delayed.

   UsageUsually give someone a bell: I'll give you a bell later.

   Similarcall, ring, buzz

6. 6
   put on animalverbtransitive

   To attach a bell to a person, animal, or object.

   Shepherds bell the lead ewe so the flock can be tracked by ear.

   The monks belled each cow before sending it up to the high pasture.

   UsageIn the figurative phrase bell the cat, someone undertakes a risky task for others: Who will bell the cat?

   Note

   The verb's most famous home is a question: Who will bell the cat? The phrase asks who will actually carry out a risky plan that everyone agrees is a good idea. Used literally, the verb is ordinary pastoral and farm vocabulary, applied to the animal that carries the bell. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • “Who will bell the cat?” is an established expression using this verb. en.wiktionary.org
   • The question concerns who will carry out a dangerous plan that the group supports. en.wikipedia.org
7. 7
   phone someoneverbslangtransitive

   To call someone on the telephone.

   Bell your sister and ask if she's coming to dinner.

   He said he'd bell the landlord about the broken heater.

   UsageTakes the person as object: bell me later, bell your sister. In a work email, call or phone is safer.

   Similarcall, ring, phone

   Note

   Dominic Lavin's Last Seen in Bangkok (2006) has "Bell us on the mobile," spoken by someone who has just called a friend a tosser. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Dominic Lavin wrote Last Seen in Bangkok. en.wiktionary.org
   • The quotation is “Bell us on the mobile,” spoken by Keith, who has just addressed Vinny as a tosser. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   idiotnounslangvulgarBritishabbreviationclipping

   Short for bell-end: a stupid, annoying, or contemptible person.

   Don't be such a bell and just give him his phone back.

   Don't be a bell about it. She was only trying to help.

   UsageDo not confuse this insult with give someone a bell, meaning 'phone someone'.

   Note

   The clipped insult keeps all the sting of the full compound, bell-end. In UK and Irish slang, bell-end names the glans penis and, by extension, a stupid or contemptible person. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The insult bell is a clipping of bell-end. en.wiktionary.org
   • Bell-end denotes the glans penis and a stupid or contemptible person in UK and Irish slang. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   ship's timenouncountable

   One of the strokes sounded on a ship's bell every half hour to mark the time during a four-hour watch.

   The lookout heard six bells and knew the watch was nearly done.

   Each bell marked another half hour of the cold night watch.

   Note

   Shipboard time is counted rather than read. The strokes build up through a four-hour watch, one more every half hour and sounded in pairs, until eight bells closes the watch and the count begins again. The number names the moment, so six bells means three hours into the watch. In this sense a plural like eight bells stands for a single point in time. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • The count increases by one every half hour during a four-hour watch; six bells consequently marks three hours into it. en.wikipedia.org
   • The strokes are grouped in pairs, with an unpaired final stroke when the count is odd. usni.org
   • Eight bells marks the end of the four-hour watch and the beginning of the next watch. navalandmilitarymuseum.org
10. 10
    pipe endnouncountable

    The widened, flared opening at one end of a pipe, shaped to receive the narrow spigot end of the next length of pipe.

    The plumber sealed the joint where the spigot slid into the bell.

    Each cast-iron section has a bell at one end and a plain spigot at the other.

    Similarsocket

11. 11
    widen at endverbtransitive

    To shape something so that it flares outward at one end, like a bell.

    Workers bell the end of each copper tube so another tube can slide inside.

    The smith belled the open end of the pipe to fit the joint.

    Similarflare

12. 12
    computer beepnouncountable

    A control character that signals a device to produce an audible alert, historically a beep or ring, rather than printing a visible symbol.

    The script sends a bell to alert the user when the long job completes.

    Older teletypes would physically ring on receiving a bell.

    Similaralert, beep

    Note

    A control character, ASCII code 7, abbreviated BEL and written \a in code. It prints nothing. Instead it asks the terminal to make a noise or give some other alert. Alert and beep are its everyday names, and they describe what modern machines actually do. Bell survives from teletypes that really did ring one. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • BEL is a nonprinting control character. pds.jpl.nasa.gov
    • Its ASCII value is 7 and its abbreviation is BEL. datatracker.ietf.org
    • The escape sequence \a represents BEL in programming code. docs.python.org
    • BEL does not print a visible character. pds.jpl.nasa.gov
    • BEL requests an audible or other attention signal. rfc-editor.org
    • The name refers to physical bells operated by the character in teletypes. navy-radio.com
13. 13
    an animal's crynouncountable

    The deep bay or bellow made by certain animals, such as a hound following a scent or a stag during the rutting season.

    The bell of the hounds carried across the frozen valley.

    From the ridge we heard the deep bell of a rutting stag.

    Similarbay, bellow, roar

    Note

    The noun belonging to the roaring verb, and like the verb it comes from a different word than the ringing bell, despite the shared spelling. The bell of the hounds is their cry, not anything they wear. It belongs to hunting talk and is used of a hound on a scent or a stag in rut. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The animal-cry noun corresponds to the verb meaning to bellow or roar. en.wiktionary.org
    • The animal-sound word and the ringing-instrument word descend from different Old English words, bellan and belle respectively. en.wiktionary.org
    • In this sense, a hound's bell is its cry. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    verbintransitive

    To cry out with a deep, loud bellow, as a stag or hound does; to utter something loudly.

    Red deer stags bell through the long nights of the rut.

    The hound belled the moment it struck the trail.

    Similarbellow, bay, roar

    Note

    A separate word in its history from the ringing bell. It comes from Old English bellan, "to bellow, roar, bark", and ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root *bʰel-, "to sound". It is hunting vocabulary: Goldsmith in 1774 lists it alongside slot for a hoof print and fumet for droppings. It is most at home with deer, as in Kipling's Sambhur belling at dawn and Golding's rutting stag belling by the trunks. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

    • The bellowing verb has a separate derivational history from the ringing-bell noun: their Old English sources are bellan and belle respectively. en.wiktionary.org
    • The verb descends from Old English bellan, meaning to bellow, roar or bark. en.wiktionary.org
    • Its ultimate reconstructed root is Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-, meaning to sound. en.wiktionary.org
    • Goldsmith's An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature was first published in 1774. writersinspire.org
    • Goldsmith lists bell among hunting terms, alongside slot for a hoof print and fumet for excrement. en.wiktionary.org
    • Kipling describes a Sambhur belling as dawn breaks. gutenberg.org
    • William Golding describes a rutting stag belling by the trunks in The Inheritors. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    column partnouncountable

    The part of a column's capital between the abacus and the neck molding, or the plain, nearly cylindrical core imagined inside a capital's carved foliage.

    Sculptors carved acanthus leaves around the bell of the Corinthian capital.

    Centuries of rain had worn the bell of the column smooth.

    Note

    Architects named the body of the capital for its outline. Between the abacus above and the neck molding below, it widens upward like an upturned bell. In a Corinthian capital the acanthus leaves are carved as if wrapped around it. That explains the second meaning, a working idea more than a visible part: the plain drum assumed to lie inside the foliage. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The architectural name refers to the body's bell-like outline, widening toward the top. gutenberg.org
    • The bell lies between the abacus and the neck molding. icomos-poland.org
    • A Corinthian capital's acanthus leaves surround its bell. gutenberg.org
    • Bell can denote the plain core conceived beneath a capital's foliage. upload.wikimedia.org
16. 16
    nounarchaicScotland

    A bubble of air or gas, such as one rising through a liquid.

    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

    Note

    James Hogg's Mary Burnet (1828) gives it a haunting setting: a girl sinking into a loch leaves "neither boil nor gurgle on the water, nor even a bell of departing breath." Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • James Hogg wrote Mary Burnet. en.wiktionary.org
    • Mary Burnet was first published in 1828. asls.org.uk
    • The quoted wording occurs in the story's narration. gutenberg.net.au
17. 17
    verbrare

    To ring or sound a bell, especially in order to give a signal.

    So that the Euston signalman may be advised of approaching trains as soon as possible, the Camden signalman sets up and transmits the description of each train immediately after it is belled to him.

    1955, “Train Describers at Euston”, in Railway Magazine
18. 18
    verbrare

    Of a plant, to develop bell-shaped flowers or corollas; to open out into a bell form; to blossom.