Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bell (usually of a rounded oblong shape and dull, heavy tone) designed to be attached to the neck of a cow to indicate her whereabouts.
  • noun An American name of the bladder-campion, Silene inflata.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • She reached the cow-bell and lay down on her face as she had been told, with feet in the air, crossed.

    The White Monkey 2004

  • A humming bee hummed, a cow-bell tinkled, while some suspicious cracklings told of a secretly reconnoitering squirrel.

    Jennie Gerhardt 2004

  • Victorine saw him slide away behind a screen, and looked at the little cow-bell.

    The White Monkey 2004

  • Bill Sharpe, who has spent eighty-two summers in the valley -- and the winters, as well -- with seeming innocence started a discussion as to how far a cow-bell could be heard.

    Sergeant York And His People

  • To the right leg of each man a cow-bell was tied; with their brooms swinging a preparatory flourish, the six stood ready to commence the game.

    The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2 No 4, October, 1862 Devoted To Literature And National Policy Various

  • At the top of the arch, thus formed, was attached a large cow-bell, the motion of which, while walking the streets, made it necessary for the slave to hold his hand to one of its sides, to steady it.

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society

  • A rabble marched out of the city to the walls of Bouvignes, a town of Namur, loyal to Burgundy, carrying a stuffed figure with a cow-bell round its neck.

    Charles the Bold Last Duke of Burgundy, 1433-1477 Ruth Putnam

  • Now and then there comes the soft, faint clank of a cow-bell, different from its sound as the cows run the road or feed in the pasture.

    Sergeant York And His People

  • Descending into the valley, we travelled along a small stream two or three miles, and were continuing on in the twilight, when we heard the tinkling of a cow-bell on the opposite side of the stream.

    What I Saw in California Edwin Bryant

  • It was compared to the measured tinkling of a cow-bell, or regular strokes upon a piece of iron, quickly repeated.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 22, August, 1859 Various

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