bells

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of bell.

   The cathedral's bells were cast in the fifteenth century and still ring today.

   Workers polished the brass bells before the festival began.

   Note

   The ordinary plural, formed with -s, and it serves every kind of bell: cathedral bells, bicycle bells, the bells that start or end a school class, even the flared bells of brass and woodwind instruments. Two plurals have grown meanings of their own, the ship's half-hour strokes and the clipped name for flared pants. A number in front, or the words a pair of, usually tells them apart.

2. 2
   nounpluralabbreviationellipsis

   Short form of bell-bottoms.

   She wore a pair of faded bells to the concert.

   Those bells flare out so wide they cover his shoes.

   Note

   A clipping that keeps the plural of its parent word: like jeans, it takes a plural verb and comes in pairs (a pair of faded bells). It reads most naturally once the longer word is already in play. Erica Heller's One Last Lunch (2020) moves from long bell-bottoms to simply my bells. The garment is the knee-down flare that marks a 1970s style.

3. 3
   nouncountableplural

   The strokes struck on a ship's bell every half hour to mark the passage of time on board.

   At eight bells the morning watch handed over to the next crew.

   She woke to the sound of four bells and knew dawn was near.

   Note

   Sailors tell time by counting strokes. One stroke is struck after the first half hour of a four-hour watch, and another is added each half hour until eight bells closes the watch. So the word nearly always comes with a number in front of it, as in four bells or eight bells, and that number counts strokes rather than naming an hour on the clock.

4. 4
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of bell.

   Every fall the old stag bells across the misty glen.

   The herder bells each goat before letting the flock roam.

   Note

   The -s form of a verb with several unrelated jobs, and an object usually shows which one is meant. The herder bells each goat, fitting it with a bell. The stag bells across the glen, with no object, and that means it bellows. In slang, she bells her sister means she phones her. The spelling matches the plural noun, so check the subject: the bells ring, but he bells.

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