dinner bell
4
1.1
- noun
- /ˈdɪnər bɛl/
- Archaic
:
campana de la cena
- When Estella rang the dinner bell, the family gathered around the table for a meal.
- dinner bell rings
- sound the dinner bell
- wait for the dinner bell
Examples
-
As soon as the dinner bell sounded, everyone knew it was time to eat.
-
I heard the dinner bell.
-
Sounds like the dinner bell's ringing.
-
Was it my imagination, or did that particular bell ring longer than any dinner bell I had ever heard?
Fiction book (1999) -
There's a dinner bell in the barn.
-
She rings a tiny dinner bell.
Fiction book (2001) -
Estella rang the dinner bell, and they filed into the dining room.
Fiction book (1999) -
The dinner bell rang.
Fiction book (1999) -
After the feeding was done, Lisa stayed in the sheep barn watching the lambs until Aunt Mary rang the dinner bell at the house.
Fiction book (1999) -
After a long day, I eagerly waited for the dinner bell to signal that dinner was ready.
Synonyms
89
1.0
A device that makes a sound to get someone's attention
How Loud
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derivable from 'dinner' (the meal) + 'bell' (a ringing device): a bell associated with or rung for dinner. This noun+noun compound follows a transparent, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Dinner bell comes from life on farms and in old homes where a small bell was rung to call people to dinner across the fields. That clear image explains why dinner bell means 'a bell that signals dinner is ready'.