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passing bell

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noun
  1. a bell tolled to announce a death or funeral.
  2. a portent or sign of the passing away of anything.

Origin of passing bell

First recorded in 1520–30
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for passing bell

Historical Examples

  • It is too good for a passing-bell, and you too good to toll it.

    Aslauga's Knight

    Fredrich de la Motte-Fouque

  • The sentence itself fell on my ear like the note of a passing-bell.

    Glimpses of Three Coasts

    Helen Hunt Jackson

  • I wish we could find out if the passing-bell was tolling for her.

  • Well, at last he rung the bell: O, thought I, that it was my passing-bell!

  • Suddenly the chimes of a neighboring church ring the passing-bell.

British Dictionary definitions for passing bell

passing bell

noun
  1. a bell rung to announce a death or a funeralAlso called: death bell, death knell
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012