bell-end

Pluralbell-ends

1. 1
   nounslangvulgarIrelandUKcountable

   Vulgar British slang for the glans, the rounded tip of the penis.

   He whacked his bell-end on the saddle and could barely sit down afterward.

   The rash had spread from his bell-end up the shaft, so he booked a clinic appointment.

   Note

   The image is pure shape: the glans pictured as the rounded, flared end of a bell. It is vulgar slang of the UK and Ireland, at home in crude jokes and blunt talk among friends. In a medical setting or polite writing, glans is the word to use. This literal sense is also the picture behind the insult, which is now the more common way to hear it.

2. 2
   nounslangoffensivevulgarIrelandUKcountable

   Vulgar British slang for a stupid or contemptible person.

   Only a total bell-end would leave his car blocking the fire exit.

   She told her brother to quit being such a bell-end about the seating plan.

   Similaridiot, prat, tosser, dickhead

   Note

   An insult of the UK and Ireland, vulgar and offensive, and a staple of terrace banter. A. Dowson used it on rec.sport.soccer in 1992 to mock West Bromwich Albion as "that infamous collection of bellends," spelling it solid, a third common form. It usually comes with a frame such as acting like a, a total, or being such a. It is never safe outside close company that shares the joke.

3. 3
   noun

   Alternative spelling of bell end.

   The inspector checked that every bell-end along the drain line was sealed tight.

   The plumber fitted a rubber seal into the drainpipe's bell-end.

   Note

   A plain compound of bell and end, and in the trades it names several flared or enclosing ends: the flanged end of a pipe, the guard around a gas cylinder's valve, and the bell-housing end of an engine and its crankshaft. Either spelling also carries the vulgar anatomical slang, so in British or Irish company the technical sense works best when the surrounding words make it unmistakable.

4. 4
   adjectivebefore a noun

   Attributive form of bell end.

   Engineers measured the bell-end diameter of every cast fitting.

   The repair shop ordered a new bell-end gasket for the drain stack.

   Note

   Here the noun is put to work in front of another noun: bell-end diameter, bell-end gasket, a bell-end fitting. It behaves like a modifier rather than a true adjective. It cannot be compared or stand after a verb, so a fitting is never "very bell-end" and never simply "bell-end." In this position it is normally written with the hyphen.

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