bell

/bel/ noun (C)

1 a piece of electrical equipment that makes a ringing sound, used as a signal or to get someone's attention: The door bell rang but no-one answered it. | Ring the bell once to make the bus stop.

2 (usually singular) the sound of a bell ringing as a signal or a warning: I didn't hear the bell, did you? | the bell goes (=makes a noise): The bell for the end of school went at 3.30.

3 a hollow metal object shaped rather like a cup, that makes a ringing sound when it is hit by a piece of metal that hangs down inside it: church bells

4 give sb a bell BrE spoken to telephone someone: I must give Vicky a bell later.

5 something in the shape of a bell, hollow and getting wider at the end: the bell of a flower

-see also: diving bell, ring a bell ring 2 (4), as clear as a bell clear 1 (10), as sound as a bell sound 3 (5)