Bell, bel, s

a hollow body of metal, enlarged or expanded at the mouth, so compounded as to emit a clear, ringing sound when struck; anything in form of a bell: v.a. to put on a bell: v.n. to grow in the form of bells, as buds or flowers. To bear the bell, to be leader, in allusion to the bell-wether of a flock. To shake the bells, to give an alarm (Shak.) To bear away the bell, to take the prize. To curse by beii, book, and candle, an excommunication accompanied by the tolling of a bell. To bell the cat, to encounter and cripple one of greatly superior force; from the fable of the mice resolving to put a bell on the cat. Pa ing bell, a bell rung when any one was dying, that the neighbours might pray for his soul (A.S. bell an, to sound loudly).