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Bell ringing   /bɛl rˈɪŋɪŋ/   Listen
Bell ringing

noun
1.
The sound of someone playing a set of bells.
2.
Persuasion of voters in a political campaign.  Synonyms: canvassing, electioneering.
3.
Playing a set of bells that are (usually) hung in a tower.  Synonyms: carillon, carillon playing.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Bell ringing" Quotes from Famous Books



... to the state of her health, after eight hours' steady dancing the preceding night. Edith's unsophisticated head ached with it all, and her tongue grew paralyzed with the platitudes of society. The gas was lit, and the dressing-bell ringing, ...
— A Terrible Secret • May Agnes Fleming

... the bell ringing for?" Northrup roused, more because the name of Mary-Clare had been introduced than because ...
— At the Crossroads • Harriet T. Comstock

... which might have been called a palazzo rather than a villa, seemed, on the side fronting the street, to be entirely closed—all the casements of the windows being shut. But when they crossed to the gate, and pulled the big iron handle that set a bell ringing, a porter appeared—a big, indolent-looking man, who regarded them calmly, to see which ...
— Sunrise • William Black

... so quickly that they could hardly believe their ears when they heard the farm bell ringing for noon. After dinner, Jake and Peter went by the settlement, on their way to the tobacco-field, to help build Powhatan's rock chimney. The boys made bows and arrows and became so interested in playing Indian that Mr. Collins ...
— Honey-Sweet • Edna Turpin

... is life—you shall see! New faces constantly, different languages. Not a moment for boredom. Always something to do night and day—the bell ringing, the trains whistling, the omnibus coming and going and all the time the gold pieces rolling into ...
— Plays: The Father; Countess Julie; The Outlaw; The Stronger • August Strindberg

... persons knowing in the ways of the world gave the same advice. But little did uncle then think that I had acted up to the very letter what he was advising for my future conduct. We re-entered the house on luncheon bell ringing. Mrs. Dale complimented the doctor on the advance her son had made both in manners and instruction, and quite naturally congratulated herself on his finding so very modest and gentlemanly a companion in the doctor's ...
— The Romance of Lust - A classic Victorian erotic novel • Anonymous

... of the "Scottish Chiefs". It was the bright summer, and we read it by moonlight, only disturbed by the murmur of the distant ocean. We read it, crouched in the deep recess of the nursery-window; we read it until moonlight and morning met, and the breakfast-bell ringing out into the soft air from the old gable, found us at the end of the fourth volume. Dear old times! when it would have been deemed little less than sacrilege to crush a respectable romance into a shilling volume, and our mammas considered only a five-volume ...
— The International Weekly Miscellany, Vol. 1, No. 7 - Of Literature, Art, and Science, August 12, 1850 • Various

... shook her body was reflected in her voice, which became tremulous. She heard the tram-bell ringing. She saw the green parrot listening on its board. And yet she was in Sicily, and saw the line of the coast between Messina and Cattaro, the Isle of the Sirens, the lakelike sea of the inlet between it and ...
— A Spirit in Prison • Robert Hichens

... with the sound of a bell ringing in her ears. The house was still asleep; the sun was pouring in brightly through the south window of the room. Sahwah wondered idly why the sun was shining in at that window; it always shone in the other window when she wakened in the ...
— The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit - Or, Over the Top with the Winnebagos • Hildegard G. Frey

... alarm key as shown in diagram, after two turns have been made on the key. When alarm goes off, it turns till it forms a connection by striking the contact post and starts the electric bell ringing. Throw lever off from the right to center, which stops bell ringing. To throw on light throw levers to the left. The bell is then cut out but the light remains on till lever is again thrown ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics

... of our occasional pitched battles with those hated Burgundian boys of the village of Maxey, and had been whipped, and were arriving on our side of the river after dark, bruised and weary, when we heard the bell ringing the tocsin. We ran all the way, and when we got to the square we found it crowded with the excited villagers, and weirdly lighted by ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... shock of horror and astonishment, his convulsive clutch on the spring started a tiny bell ringing. Then, under his very nose, the empty tray slid aside revealing another tray underneath, set solidly with brilliants. A rainbow glitter streamed from the unset gems in the silken tray. Like an incredulous child he touched them. They were ...
— The Flaming Jewel • Robert Chambers

... favor of the "Scottish Chiefs." It was the bright summer, and we read it by moonlight, only disturbed by the murmur of the distant ocean. We read it, crouched in the deep recess of the nursery window; we read it until moonlight and morning met, and the breakfast bell ringing out into the soft air from the old gable, found us at the end of the fourth volume. Dear old times! when it would have been deemed little less than sacrilege to crush a respectable romance into a shilling volume, and ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 4, September, 1850 • Various

... of his first sleep by hearing his door-bell ringing violently, was naturally in a great fright, and stood trembling and bowing as Jack walked into the house. He excused himself on the plea that he had no notion the prisoners were English officers, fully believing that they were ...
— The Three Lieutenants • W.H.G. Kingston

... in haste to purge itself of its heretical elements, met soon after sunrise to depose their vice-chancellor. Dr. Sandys, who had gone for an early stroll among the meadows to meditate on his position, hearing the congregation-bell ringing, resolved, like a brave man, to front his fortune; he walked to the senate-house, entered, and took his seat. "A rabble of Papists" instantly surrounded him. He tried to speak, but the masters of arts shouted ...
— The Reign of Mary Tudor • James Anthony Froude

... house in Grosvenor Gardens was wondering discontentedly what she was going to do with herself until tea-time, when she heard the sound of a bell ringing far down in the basement. Despite the grand drawing-room, despite the rich rustle of her grey silk dress, this great lady peeped from behind the curtain, and saw ...
— The Grey Lady • Henry Seton Merriman

... It seems to me like the sound of a bell ringing a long way off, that I had leave at one time ...
— Three Wonder Plays • Lady I. A. Gregory

... was quite an ingenious contraption; but all the same there was no bell ringing during that night: And yet when Toby went out next morning to examine his disappointing contrivance he reported that the monkey had actually been there, and eaten up all the nut meat, even going inside the trap, and ...
— Chums of the Camp Fire • Lawrence J. Leslie

... after this, that one day, Clover and Elsie were busy down stairs, they were startled by the sound of Katy's bell ringing in a sudden and agitated manner. Both ran up two steps at a time, to see what ...
— What Katy Did • Susan Coolidge

... Lord Ashiel into the hall with the intention of showing him out of the flat, but the sudden sound of the door bell ringing made him abandon this courtesy and retreat ...
— The Ashiel mystery - A Detective Story • Mrs. Charles Bryce

... glad it is no worse. Get a wash and get your clothes on, and come down to breakfast, like a good boy, for I hear the bell ringing." ...
— Two Knapsacks - A Novel of Canadian Summer Life • John Campbell

... opened the window or door, then would he run away laughing ho, ho, hoh! Sometimes would he go like a bellman in the night, and with many pretty verses delight the ears of those that waked at his bell ringing: his ...
— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick

... and at the word—Oh! how strange a word!—'All's right,' the horses sprang off like leopards, a manner ill-suited to the slippery pavement of a narrow street. At that moment, but we valued it little indeed, we heard the prison-bell ringing out loud and clear. Thrice within the first three minutes we had to pull up suddenly, on the brink of formidable accidents, from the dangerous speed we maintained, and which, nevertheless, the driver had orders to maintain, as essential ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey

... her dummy, fancied she heard the electric bell ringing at the front door. Later, having barely made the odd, she was turning to look at the major, when, beyond him, she saw Leroy Mortimer enter the room, sullen, pasty-skinned, but perfectly ...
— The Fighting Chance • Robert W. Chambers

... hour she almost forgot; sometimes she listened, and the shrill singing of the canary was mixed with thoughts of her dead brothers and sisters, of her mother. She was waked from her reveries by the farm bell ringing the labourers' dinner hour. ...
— A Mere Accident • George Moore

... the morning came a sound that told all the cadets that the annual encampment was now at hand. Instead of the school bell ringing, there were the notes of two bugles ringing through the corridors. Then from outside came the vigorous ...
— The Rover Boys Under Canvas - or The Mystery of the Wrecked Submarine • Arthur M. Winfield

... usual; I observed an unusual number of soldiers mounting the walls; and one of them called to one of the prisoners, and told him he (the prisoner) had better go into the prison, as the prisoners would soon be charged upon. While he was asking the cause of such a proceeding, I heard the alarm bell ringing. I immediately run to the gates leading to the square, when I saw Captain Shortland at the head of the armed soldiery marching down to the gratings, the prisoners at the same time running to see what was the matter; on the soldiers coming to the gratings, Capt. Shortland ...
— A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed. • Benjamin Waterhouse

... strangers; we have exchanged "good mornings" and that is all, and now sit staring at each other at a distance of twenty yards. How different it would have been if we were Frenchmen instead of cold-blooded Englishmen. After dark the fakirs had a "tomasha." Singing, bell ringing, tambourine-beating, and the blowing of discordant horns all at the same time, constituted a delightful music—to them at least—and was continued for hours, interrupted by shouting and yelling, and with this din going on I ...
— Three Months of My Life • J. F. Foster

... played, and all the people hurried toward the landing. The marquis came in the steamer Natchez from St. Louis. When Mary Panisciowa heard the old bell ringing she knew that the marquis was coming, and she hid the faded old letter in her bosom and wept. She sent a messenger to the tavern, who asked Lafayette if he would meet the daughter of Panisciowa, and ...
— In The Boyhood of Lincoln - A Tale of the Tunker Schoolmaster and the Times of Black Hawk • Hezekiah Butterworth

... directed, and then stopped, and stood looking round on all the doors and on me with a wofully puzzled air. "The street door," said I, pointing towards the entry. Kotterin blundered into the entry, and stood gazing with a look of stupid wonder at the bell ringing without hands, while I went to the door and let in the company before she could be fairly made to understand the connection between the ringing and the ...
— Household Papers and Stories • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... afternoon was half over we had finished them, and were wondering whatever we could get to do to help us through all the hours that still remained. This was not a day for Uncle Geoff seeing people in his house, so we had not even the fun of listening to the carriages stopping, and the bell ringing, and trying to peep at the ladies and gentlemen getting out. Sarah was rather kind—she came in and out to see us as often as she could, but of course she had a great deal of work to do, and she said Mrs. Partridge made her work even harder than she needed. Mrs. Partridge did not come up-stairs ...
— The Boys and I • Mrs. Molesworth

... constant bell ringing, there being so many churches and so many services both on week days and Sundays. Later, however, he discovered that it is possible to study, even at Oxford, if you plug your ears with cotton-wool soaked in glycerine. ...
— The Life of Sir Richard Burton • Thomas Wright

... going!" declared Everard. "Isn't that your school-bell ringing? Well, I'm glad at any rate to find you all right. Shan't dare to believe any of your ...
— The Princess of the School • Angela Brazil

... then. It's t' only time he does. If they'd just go and make a reg'lar end o' one another! but they never does,"—and the smith pushed away his trencher with a sigh. "Well! I reckon I mun be going. She gave me while four:—and I'm feared o' vesper bell ringing afore I can get home. There'll be more bells nor one, if so. God be wi' ye, lasses! Good ...
— Our Little Lady - Six Hundred Years Ago • Emily Sarah Holt

... Iago, who had set on foot the mischief, was foremost in spreading the alarm, causing the castle-bell to be rung (as if some dangerous mutiny instead of a slight drunken quarrel had arisen): the alarm-bell ringing awakened Othello, who, dressing in a hurry, and coming to the scene of action, questioned Cassio of the cause. Cassio was now come to himself, the effect of the wine having a little gone off, but was too much ashamed to reply; and Iago, pretending a great reluctance ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb

... sense-perception exercises an influence which unites simultaneous ideas, now here again united. Suppose once during some extraordinary sound, e. g., the ringing of a bell, which I do not often hear, I had seen somebody. Now when I hear that bell ringing I will think of the person without perhaps knowing the definite association—i. e., the connection of the man with the tone of the bell occurs unconsciously. This may go still further. That man, when I first saw him, might have worn, perhaps, a red necktie, let us say poppy-red—it may ...
— Robin Hood • J. Walker McSpadden

... from a nap, and started up in her bed. The sun was up, but the clock on the bureau said it was only seven o'clock, too early to arise for the day's work. But then the sound of the telephone bell ringing in the hall caused her to get up and don her slippers and dressing gown and hurry ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science July 1930 • Various

... A monster bell for York Minster, then being exhibited at the Baker Street Bazaar. Mr. Boyd was an enthusiast on bells and bell ringing.] ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon

... photographs. The shop was old-fashioned and low and dark, and the house rose above it for four storeys, dark and dismal. I peered through the window and, seeing no one within, entered. The opening of the door set a clanking bell ringing. I left it open, and walked round a bare costume stand, into a corner behind a cheval glass. For a minute or so no one came. Then I heard heavy feet striding across a room, and a man ...
— The Invisible Man • H. G. Wells

... looked angry, and took a step forward; but the sound of a sharp imperative little bell behind her, made her turn at once, and re-enter the shop from which she had just issued, following a man whose pushing the door wider had set the bell ringing. Above the door was a small board, nearly square, upon which was painted in lead-colour on a black ground the words, "Licensed to sell beer, spirits, and tobacco to be drunk on the premises." There was no other sign. "Them 'at likes my whusky 'ill no aye be speerin' my name," ...
— Sir Gibbie • George MacDonald

... its interest and excitement; the crowds, the heat, the light, suddenly oppressed her; for the first time her heart gave way. She felt scared, friendless, lonely. There came to her mind a thought of the peaceful faces of the black-robed sisters, a sound as of the tinkling bell ringing above the old cabbage-ground, a breath sweet with the scent of fresh roses in Jeanne-Marie's little garden; she had a momentary impulse to go, to fly somewhere, anywhere—ah! but whither? Whither in all the wide world could ...
— My Little Lady • Eleanor Frances Poynter

... surprised to see his visitors. Mr. Kara was in his room he explained resentfully, as though T. X. should have been aware of the fact without being told. He had heard no bell ringing and indeed had not been summoned ...
— The Clue of the Twisted Candle • Edgar Wallace

... into place and arose, while, the breakfast-bell ringing at that moment, Mrs. Montague passed from the room, very nearly if not quite satisfied that Ruth Richards was an entirely ...
— Mona • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... profound nocturnal silence broken only by the man's slow, regular breathing, she heard a sudden ring. It was the front-door bell ringing in the kitchen. The bell rang again and again obstinately. G.J.'s party was over, then, and he had arrived to make inquiries. She smiled, and did not move. After a few moments she could hear Marthe stirring. She sprang up, and then, cunningly considerate, slipped from under ...
— The Pretty Lady • Arnold E. Bennett

... made little or no noise or confusion in the house, consequently he was not known to the servants, and very little known to the clerks. John Thomas was another person—he was all fuss and feathers. He kept his bell ringing, and the servants rushing for towels and water, water and towels, boots and beer, beer and boots, the English papers, maps of America, &c., without cessation. He was John Thomas and ...
— The Humors of Falconbridge - A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes • Jonathan F. Kelley

... dying!" cried Esau, very close to me now, as it seemed to me; but his voice died out quickly, beginning as a shrill cry and ending in a faint whisper, and it all grew dark and silent for a time. Then once more I seemed to wake up with a shrill-toned bell ringing loudly in my ears; and I lay with a terrible sensation of deathly faintness till I heard Esau say, close to me—"I'll carry ...
— To The West • George Manville Fenn

... no!' cried his landlord, pointing eagerly again, 'not there. The other way; the other way. Look at the cabin steps. To the left. They must be near the cabin steps. Do you see the cabin steps? There's the bell ringing already! DO ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens

... Carita," she said. "That's some kind of a bell ringing for something or other—goodness knows what! Maybe ...
— Blue Bonnet in Boston - or, Boarding-School Days at Miss North's • Caroline E. Jacobs

... unless a settler, without a pass; penalty, confiscation. The boats to be kept tight; carry four oars, one mast and sail; boatmen to treat passengers civilly; to give notice half an hour before they depart, by bell ringing; not to stop more than ten minutes by the way, nor to go alongside a vessel, without acquainting the wharfinger; and the proprietors to keep entry-books, under the penalty of forfeiting the bond and recognizances ...
— The Present Picture of New South Wales (1811) • David Dickinson Mann

... gave a faltering jerk to the handle of the garden-gate bell. He essayed a more energetic tug, and his previous nervousness was not at all diminished by hearing the bell ringing like ...
— Sketches by Boz - illustrative of everyday life and every-day people • Charles Dickens

... ought to have been in hospital, had rung his bell, to summon the gaoler for permission to respond to one of the calls of nature, but that he had been unable to contain himself until the dilatory official arrived. I might mention that I had heard the bell ringing for fully ten minutes but without avail. Although scrupulous cleanliness is demanded from each cell I know from experience that the gaolers are ever reluctant to reply to a call of the emergency ...
— Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons - Wesel, Sennelager, Klingelputz, Ruhleben • Henry Charles Mahoney

... walked on tiptoe through the hall, and he kept whispering to me, "This is just like—it's just like burglary. Girls are reckless. We'd better look out. Do you hear a footstep upstairs? I hear a bell ringing. I bet he's calling ...
— Roy Blakeley's Bee-line Hike • Percy Keese Fitzhugh



Words linked to "Bell ringing" :   electioneering, change ringing, persuasion, music, ringing, ring, tintinnabulation, carillon, suasion



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