Bell

See also bell

English

Proper noun

Bell

1. A Scottish and northern English surname for a bell ringer, bellmaker, or from someone who lived "at the Bell (inn)"
2. The Bell telephone company (after Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.)
3. A male given name occasionally transferred from the surname.
4. A female given name, a variant of Belle; mostly used as a middle name in the 19th century.
   • 1857 Charles Dickens, The Perils of Certain English Prisoners, Chapter 1:

     I couldn’t make out her name at first; for, when she gave it in answer to my inquiry, it sounded like Beltot, which didn’t sound right. But, when we became better acquainted—which was while Charker and I were drinking sugar-cane sangaree, which she made in a most excellent manner—I found that her Christian name was Isabella, which they shortened into Bell, and that the name of the deceased non-commissioned officer was Tott. Being the kind of neat little woman it was natural to make a toy of—I never saw a woman so like a toy in my life—she had got the plaything name of Belltott. In short, she had no other name on the island.

Related terms

• Baby Bell
• Bellhead
• Ma Bell

Noun

Bell (plural Bells)

1. (US, Canada) a telephone utility; a Baby Bell.