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Webster 1913 Edition
Knell
Knell
,Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Knelled
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Knelling
.] To sound as a knell; especially, to toll at a death or funeral; hence, to sound as a warning or evil omen.
Not worth a blessing nor a bell to
knell
for thee. Beau. & Fl.
Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known,
Of hopes laid waste,
Of hopes laid waste,
knells
in that word, “alone”. Ld. Lytton.
Knell
,Verb.
T.
To summon, as by a knell.
Each matin bell, the baron saith,
Knells
us back to a world of death. Coleridge.
Webster 1828 Edition
Knell
KNELL
,Noun.
Definition 2024
knell
knell
English
Verb
knell (third-person singular simple present knells, present participle knelling, simple past and past participle knelled)
- (intransitive) to ring a bell slowly, especially for a funeral; to toll.
- Beaumont and Fletcher
- not worth a blessing nor a bell to knell for thee
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The New Timon. A romance of London, Chapter 86
- Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known, / Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word, alone.
- Beaumont and Fletcher
- (transitive) to signal or proclaim something by ringing a bell.
Translations
to ring a bell slowly
to signal or proclaim something by ringing a bell
Noun
knell (plural knells)
- the sound of a bell knelling; a toll.
- c 1608, William Shakespeare, s:Coriolanus, Act 5, Scene IV.
- ...he is able to pierce a corselet with his eye; talks like a knell, and his hum is a battery.
- 1750, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Line 1
- The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
- c 1608, William Shakespeare, s:Coriolanus, Act 5, Scene IV.