bell (3)

[Compare Gael. ball a spot or mark; Bret. bal a white mark on the face of an animal.] [BALD.] A white mark en a horse, or on any other animal. * běll, a. [Corrupted from beld = bald.] Bald (0. Scotch.) * bell-kite, s. The Bald Coot. (Jamie son.) běll (1), v.t. & i. [From BELL (1), s. (q.v.).] A. Transitively : 1. Lit. To put a bell upon. 2. Fig .: At great personal risk to attempt to render the a ault or hostility of an adversary futile. The signification is derived from the following apologue. A colony of mice, losing some of their number through the depredations of a cat, held a conference to try to devise measures for their preservation. When all were perplexed, a young mouse stood up. and in a fforid speech proposed that a bell should be affixed to the tail of the cat. This, of course, would ring whenever she moved, and thus give warning of her approach. The young mouse sat down amid loud applause, on which an old and experienced mouse asked if their young friend would now be kind enough to inform them who would bell the cat. The orator had never thought of this, and was speechle . [ Bell the cat, under BELL, 8.] B. In trans.: To develop into the form of a bell. (Used specially of plants with campanulate corollas, sometimes, however, also of flower-buds.) * běll (2), v. i. (From BELL (2), s.] To bubble up, to throw up or bear bubbles. "When the scum turns blue And the blood bells through." Perils of Man, ii. 44. (Jamie son.) *běll (3), * bělle, v. i. [A.S. bell an = to bellow, to roar, to bark.] [BELLOW.] 1. Lit. ( of animals): To roar, to bellow. Used (1) Gen. Of the cry of various animals. "Bellyn or roryn as nette: Mugio ."- Prompt . Parv. (2) Spec. Of the roar or bellow of the stag in rutting time. "An inscription on a rock at Wharncliffe states that the lodge there was erected by Sir Thomas mas Wortley 'for his plesur to her the herts bell "-Hall am shire Glo ary, p. 11. 2. Of anything inanimate capable of making a bellowing sound. "He gan to blasen out a soun, As loud as belleth winde in Hell." Chaucer: Hous of Fame , iii. 713.