passing bell

American  

noun

1. a bell tolled to announce a death or funeral.

2. a portent or sign of the passing away of anything.

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passing bell British  

noun

1. Also called: death bell, death knell. a bell rung to announce a death or a funeral

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Etymology

Origin of passing bell

First recorded in 1520–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

passing bell

In Bishop Blougram's Apology, Browning's bishop says of the "-ologies" that they are "the Greek endings, the little passing bell that signifies some faith's about to die."

From Time Magazine Archive

Somewhere near, a passing bell was tolling; the dogs all round the neighbourhood were howling; and in our shrubbery, seemingly just outside, a nightingale was singing.

From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker

Hark to their fire! his only knell, More solemn than the passing bell; For, ah! it tells a spirit flown Without a prayer or sigh, alone!

From Graham's Magazine Vol. XXXII No. 2. February 1848 by Robert Taylor Conrad

The passing bell has a place in the story of the death, in the Tower of London, of Lady Catherine Grey, sister to the unfortunate Lady Jane.

From Old Church Lore by William Andrews

Every syllable of this last sad wail is as a funeral knell to all our hopes, tolling mournfully; and, like a passing bell, attending them, too, to their "age-long home"!

From Old Groans and New Songs Being Meditations on the Book of Ecclesiastes by Frederick Charles Jennings