Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
cowbell

cowbell

8 2.6
A bell hung on a cow's neck to help find it in fields
  • noun
  • /ˈkaʊˌbɛl/
translation icon : cencerro
  • During football season, he's ringing cowbells on Saturdays and watching the Pats on Sundays.
  • cowbell ringing
  • the ringing of cowbells
  • clanging a cowbell

Examples

  • Treeless pasture stretched away in all directions; cowbells clanked in the distance.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • The farmer attached a cowbell to each of the cows so he could find them in the vast field.

  • The wife tried to take her cowbell, but the old woman held on to it.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • All children should have to wear a cowbell.

    Flightplan (2005)

  • I want to play my cowbell!

    Fiction book (2002)

  • You can put the cowbell on a stand and play with two sticks.

  • Spinner drops the cowbell, and it clangs on the studio floor.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • As the herd wandered through the meadow, the sound of cowbells echoed in the distance.

  • During the festival, the children brought cowbells to make music while celebrating.

Synonyms

bell
vscowbell
71 1.0

A shape that is round at the bottom and narrow at the top

is hung around an animal's neck to help locate it in open countryside

How Loud

to gong
1 7.7
cowbell
8 2.6
bell
221 1.0
to chime
61 3.0

Surface Forms

cowbell singular
cowbells plural

Morphology

cowbell = cow + bell (transparent) = cow + bell

Direct compound of two common words 'cow' + 'bell'; the meaning is literally a bell for a cow and is easily inferred by learners.

Etymology

The word cowbell is simply the two words cow and bell joined together. It was originally a bell hung around a cow's neck so farmers could 'find' the animal by its sound, and that is still what cowbell means today.