Dictionary

bell-pull en · NOUN

Etymology

From bell + pull.

Meanings

1. A rope that rings a bell.
2. A handle attached to a rope that rings a bell.
   • Jessamy tugged the scrolled iron bell-pull which hung down on one side of the gate. Somewhere behind, she could hear an answering jangle. 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 11:
   • While she was doing this the wood partition in the centre of the house thrilled to its centre with the tugging of a bell-pull upstairs. A bell below tinkled a note that was feebler in sound than the twanging of wires and cranks that had produced it. 1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 7, in The Mayor of Casterbridge:
3. The tail of a fox
   • The "bell-pull," as trophy, is kept to preserve, And the hounds eat the fox they so richly deserve. 1863, Ned Farmer, Ned Farmer's Scrap Book, 3rd edition, page 91:

Forms

Translations (1)

nl schellekoord (rope that rings a bell)