Dictionary

lowbell en · NOUN

Etymology

From low + bell. See low (“a flame”).

Meanings

1. A bell used in fowling at night, to frighten birds, and, with a sudden light, to make them fly into a net.
   • c. 1700-1708, William King, Art of Love The fowler's lowbell robs the lark of sleep.
2. (obsolete) A bell to be hung on the neck of a sheep or cow.
   • […] take the lowbell […]; toll this bell just as a weather sheep does, while he is feeding in pasture ground […] 1831, Thomas Burgeland Johnson, The Sportsman's Cyclopedia, page 527:
   • […] pipes and horns were sounded, together with lowbells [cow- or sheep-bell] and other smaller bells which the company had amongst them […] 2009, Newton Key, Robert Bucholz, Sources and Debates in English History, 1485-1714, page 113:

Forms