Bow bells
Americanplural noun
Etymology
Origin of Bow bells
First recorded in 1590–1600
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Traditionally, a Cockney is anyone "born within the sound of Bow bells" - the bells of St.Mary-le-Bow church in the heart of medieval London.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 20, 2012
Yet I welcome the digital download of Bow bells if it can encourage the virtues of self-reliance and magnanimity that are characteristic of these unjustly misrepresented people.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 26, 2012
She calls herself "a true cockney" – she was born in Barts hospital on a Sunday morning to the sound of the Bow bells.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 20, 2011
Silent, too, were the famous Bow bells of Cheapside, within whose sound all Cockneys were once born.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was the chime of Bow bells, and this is what it said to him:— "Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of London!"
From Stories of London by E. L. (Elizabeth Louisa) Hoskyn
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
