Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To ring slowly and solemnly, especially for a funeral; toll.
- intransitive verb To give forth a mournful or ominous sound.
- intransitive verb To signal, summon, or proclaim by tolling.
- noun The sound of a bell knelling; a toll.
- noun A signal of disaster or destruction.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To strike; knock.
- To toll, as a bell; ring for or at a funeral; knoll.
- To summon by or as if by a knell.
- To sound, as a bell, especially as a funeral bell.
- Hence To sound as an omen or a warning of coming evil.
- noun The sound caused by striking a bell; especially, the sound of a bell rung with solemn slowness at or for a funeral; a passing-bell.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (figuratively), (figuratively) The stroke of a bell tolled at a funeral or at the death of a person; a death signal; a passing bell
- intransitive verb To sound as a knell; especially, to toll at a death or funeral; hence, to sound as a warning or evil omen.
- transitive verb To summon, as by a knell.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive to
ring a bellslowly , especially for afuneral ; totoll . - verb transitive to
signal orproclaim something by ringing a bell. - noun the sound of a bell knelling; a
toll .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb ring as in announcing death
- verb make (bells) ring, often for the purposes of musical edification
- noun the sound of a bell rung slowly to announce a death or a funeral or the end of something
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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When they had gone from house to house and collected all the money they could, they laid the wren on a bier and carried it in procession to the parish churchyard, where they made a grave and buried it with the utmost solemnity, singing dirges over her in the Manks language, which they call her knell; after which Christmas begins.
Chapter 54. Types of Animal Sacrament. § 2. Processions with Sacred Animals 1922
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When they had gone from house to house and collected all the money they could, they laid the wren on a bier and carried it in procession to the parish churchyard, where they made a grave and buried it "with the utmost solemnity, singing dirges over her in the Manks language, which they call her knell; after which Christmas begins."
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In another moment it forged slowly past me, tolling as it were a death knell from the engine-bell and associating in my mind spectral tableaux of horrible collisions and mangled dead.
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Manks language, which they call her knell; after which Christmas begins. "
The Golden Bough James George Frazer 1897
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When they had gone from house to house and collected all the money they could, they laid the wren on a bier and carried it in procession to the parish churchyard, where they made a grave and buried it “with the utmost solemnity, singing dirges over her in the Manks language, which they call her knell; after which
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-- the slumber which visits her pillow, as she listens to that sad music she called her knell; her awakening from the vision of celestial joy to find herself still on earth --
Characteristics of Women Moral, Poetical, and Historical 1827
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a single one if the knell is for man, or two for a woman.
The Wide, Wide World 1892
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This is of course connected with "knell," though the only Kneller who has become famous was a German named Kniller.
The Romance of Names Ernest Weekley 1909
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Obama will be signing the death knell of the American Space Program. keny
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BBC World Service cuts: 'This is the death knell' - video
yarb commented on the word knell
What other kinds of knell are there apart from the death-knell?
November 8, 2007
sionnach commented on the word knell
the knell of parting day? the grassy knell?
November 8, 2007
sionnach commented on the word knell
Oops! That should be the grassy knoll, of course. But who was that young lady in the Old Curiosity Shop? Wasn't she called little knell?
OK, I'll stop now, I promise.
November 8, 2007
Ms.Paradise12 commented on the word knell
(Knell) With this word is depressing now that i know the meaning a sound of a bell that toll one ring for a man and two ring toll for a woman at death
June 19, 2011