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Bell vs Belly - What's the difference?

bell | belly |

As an adjective bell

is beautiful.

As a noun belly is

the abdomen.

As a verb belly is

to position one's belly.

bell

English

(wikipedia bell)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • A percussive instrument made of metal or other hard material, typically but not always in the shape of an inverted cup with a flared rim, which resonates when struck.
  • * 1848 , Edgar Allan Poe, "(The Bells)"
    • HEAR the sledges with the bells —
    Silver bells !
    What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
  • The sounding of a bell as a signal.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
    • , date=December 18 , author=Ben Dirs , title=Carl Froch outclassed by dazzling Andre Ward , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Referee Steve Smoger was an almost invisible presence in the ring as both men went at it, although he did have a word with Froch when he landed with a shot after the bell at the end of the eighth.}}
  • (chiefly, British, informal) A telephone call.
    • I’ll give you a bell later.
  • A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
  • (music) The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
  • (nautical) Any of a series of strokes on a bell (or similar), struck every half hour to indicate the time (within a four hour watch)
  • The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.
  • (computing) A device control code that produces a beep (or rings a small electromechanical bell on older teleprinters etc.).
  • Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.
  • * Shakespeare
    • In a cowslip's bell I lie.
  • (architecture) The part of the capital of a column included between the abacus and neck molding; also used for the naked core of nearly cylindrical shape, assumed to exist within the leafage of a capital.
    • Derived terms
    * * bell curve * bellbottoms * bellflower * bell-ringer * bell tower * * bicycle bell * bluebell * church bell * doorbell * handbell * harebell * ring someone's bell * saved by the bell * sound as a bell * with bells on
    See also
    * alarm * buzz * buzzer * carillon * chime * clapper * curfew * dinger * ding-dong * gong * peal * ringer * siren * tintinnabulum * tocsin * toll * vesper

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To attach a bell to.
    • Who will bell the cat?
  • To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
    • to bell a tube
  • (slang) To telephone.
  • * 2006 , Dominic Lavin, Last Seen in Bangkok
    • "Vinny, you tosser, it's Keith. I thought you were back today. I'm in town. Bell us on the mobile.''
  • To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.
    • Hops bell .

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m). Cognate with (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To bellow or roar.
  • * 1774 , Oliver Goldsmith, A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature :
    • This animal is said to harbour'' in the place where he resides. When he cries, he is said to ''bell'' ; the print of his hoof is called the ''slot''; his tail is called the ''single''; his excrement the ''fumet''; his horns are called his ''head [...].
  • * (rfdate) Rudyard Kipling
    • As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled / Once, twice and again!
  • * 1955 , William Golding, The Inheritors , Faber and Faber 2005, page 128:
    • Then, incredibly, a rutting stag belled by the trunks.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.

    • belly

    English

    Noun

    (bellies)
  • The abdomen.
    • (Dunglison)
  • The stomach, especially a fat one.
  • The womb.
  • * Bible, Jer. i. 5
    • Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.
  • The lower fuselage of an airplane.
  • * 1994 , Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 454:
    • There was no heat, and we shivered in the belly of the plane.
  • The part of anything which resembles the human belly in protuberance or in cavity; the innermost part.
    • the belly of a flask, muscle, sail, or ship
  • * Bible, Jonah ii. 2
    • Out of the belly of hell cried I.
  • (architecture) The hollow part of a curved or bent timber, the convex part of which is the back.

    • Derived terms

    * beer belly * bellyache * belly button/belly-button * belly dance/belly-dance * belly dancer/belly-dancer * belly dancing * belly flop, bellyflop * bellyful * belly laugh/belly-laugh * bellyless * bellylike * belly of the beast * Delhi belly * fire in the belly * sawbelly * sharpbelly

    Usage notes

    * Formerly, all the splanchnic or visceral cavities were called bellies: the lower belly being the abdomen; the middle belly, the thorax; and the upper belly, the head.

    See also

    * have eyes bigger than one's belly * abdomen * bouk * stomach * tummy

    Verb

  • To position one's belly.
  • To swell and become protuberant; to bulge.
  • * Dryden
    • The bellying canvas strutted with the gale.
  • To cause to swell out; to fill.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Your breath of full consent bellied his sails.

    Derived terms

    * belly up