Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The bell of a church, which is rung to call the people, or to mark festivals or funerals.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • It's part of the famous church-bell intro to Jelly Roll Morton's "Dead Man Blues," but I have no doubt that Mr. Gordon will be ringing in the New Year with that bell on Saturday night.

    Rolling With the Rhythms Will Friedwald 2011

  • Indians; while, sometimes, the wind tolled like a distant church-bell, and sometimes gave a broad roar around the traveler, as if all Nature were laughing him to scorn ....

    National Demons: Robert Burns, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the Folk in the Forest 2006

  • She waved an arm at the tangled streets below; the bangles on her scrawny wrist jangled; somewhere not too distant, a church-bell marked the hour of two.

    Duma Key King, Stephen, 1947- 2008

  • * A church-bell, that tolls every day at six and twelve of the clock; at the hearing whereof every one, in what place soever, either of house or street, betakes himself to his prayer, which is commonly directed to the Virgin. devotion.

    Religio Medici 2007

  • However, lad, 'he continued, seeing that the boy rose as the church-bell began to toll,' this is

    Shirley, by Charlotte Bronte 2004

  • Italian company Belltron are the people to go to for all your midi-controllable church-bell needs.

    Rock the Bells 2004

  • Italian company Belltron are the people to go to for all your midi-controllable church-bell needs.

    Archive 2004-09-01 2004

  • ‘Now we hear her; it sounds like a little church-bell!’

    The Yellow Fairy Book 2003

  • To the infernal and brain-splitting booming of the earth was added the cacophony of cascading pans and dishes, the menacing, wild, but mincing tarantella of chairs and table, the gunshot reports of snapping beams and walls, the random clanging of the church-bell, and a choking cloud of dust with the stench of sulphur that tore at the throat and eyes.

    Captain Corelli's Mandolin De Bernieres, Louis 2003

  • Haworth church-bell spoke forth the fact of her death to the villagers who had known her from a child, and whose hearts shivered within them as they thought of the two sitting desolate and alone in the old grey house.

    The Life of Charlotte Bronte 2002

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