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Glite Dictionary
bell jar

bell jar

1 6.9
A glass cover shaped like a bell used to protect fragile things like clocks or small objects
  • noun
  • /bɛl dʒɑr/
  • Specialized
translation icon : campana de vidrio
  • This is a glass bell jar that seals onto a, an aluminum plate here.
  • a glass bell jar

Examples

  • Shaver collects volatiles both from plant blooms that have been picked and from intact flowering plants placed in a bell jar.

    Academic text (1994)

  • You have a copy of the bell jar by your bed?

    My First Mister (2001)

  • And it sits in this bell jar base.

  • The bell jar stands on a tall, thin wooden sculpture stand.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • What we've got is a bell jar, a sealed bell jar.

  • Walls lined with display cabinets and bell jars: stuffed birds, butterflies, spiders.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • This antique bell jar elegantly showcases delicate flowers while protecting them from dust.

  • The scientist used a bell jar to create a vacuum for his experiment involving gas reactions.

  • After dinner, she placed the leftover cake under a glass bell jar to keep it fresh.

Synonyms

bell glass
vsbell jar
7.7

A bell-shaped glass cover used to protect or display objects and to hold gases

refers to the same cover but as an alternative name or form

Surface Forms

bell jar singular
bell jars plural

Morphology

bell + jar

The meaning is directly compositional: a 'bell jar' is simply a jar (container/cover) that is bell-shaped, so a learner who knows 'bell' and 'jar' can infer a bell-shaped glass cover. This noun–noun construction follows a common, cross-linguistic naming pattern (modifier + object), making the sense immediately predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Bell jar comes from its shape: a glass cover that looks like an upside-down bell and acts like a jar placed over an object. Because it is put over things to keep them safe or to hold gases, it means 'a glass cover used to protect or contain something'.