'Knell' definitions:
Definition of 'knell'
(from WordNet)
noun
The sound of a bell rung slowly to announce a death or a funeral or the end of something
verb
Ring as in announcing death
verb
Make (bells) ring, often for the purposes of musical edification; "Ring the bells"; "My uncle rings every Sunday at the local church" [syn: ring, knell]
Definition of 'Knell'
From: GCIDE
- Knell \Knell\, v. t. To summon, as by a knell. [1913 Webster]
- Each matin bell, the baron saith, Knells us back to a world of death. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Knell'
From: GCIDE
- Knell \Knell\, n. [OE. knel, cnul, AS. cnyll, fr. cnyllan to sound a bell; cf. D. & G. knallen to clap, crack, G. & Sw. knall a clap, crack, loud sound, Dan. knalde to clap, crack. Cf. Knoll, n. & v.] The stroke of a bell tolled at a funeral or at the death of a person; a death signal; a passing bell; hence, (figuratively), a warning or harbinger of, or a sound indicating, the passing away of anything; -- also called death knell. [1913 Webster +PJC]
- The dead man's knell Is there scarce asked for who. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. --Gray. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Knell'
From: GCIDE
- Knell \Knell\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Knelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Knelling.] [OE. knellen, knillen, As. cnyllan. See Knell, n.] To sound as a knell; especially, to toll at a death or funeral; hence, to sound as a warning or evil omen. [1913 Webster]
- Not worth a blessing nor a bell to knell for thee. --Beau. & Fl. [1913 Webster]
- Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known, Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word, "alone". --Ld. Lytton. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'knell'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- annihilation,
- bane,
- bell,
- bemoan,
- bewail,
- biological death,
- bong,
- cessation of life,
- change ringing,
- chime,
- chiming,
- chink,
- clang,
- clanging,
- clangor,
- clank,
- clanking,
- clinical death,
- clink,
- coronach,
- crossing the bar,
- curtains,
- dead march,
- death,
- death bell,
- death knell,
- death song,
- debt of nature,
- decease,
- demise,
- departure,
- deplore,
- ding,
- ding-a-ling,
- dingdong,
- dinging,
- dingle,
- dirge,
- dissolution,
- dong,
- donging,
- doom,
- dying,
- ebb of life,
- elegize,
- elegy,
- end,
- end of life,
- ending,
- epicedium,
- eternal rest,
- eulogy,
- exit,
- expiration,
- extinction,
- extinguishment,
- final summons,
- finger of death,
- funeral march,
- funeral oration,
- funeral ring,
- funeral song,
- give sorrow words,
- going,
- going off,
- gong,
- grave,
- graveside oration,
- grieve,
- hand of death,
- jangle,
- jaws of death,
- jingle,
- jingle-jangle,
- jinglejangle,
- jingling,
- keen,
- knelling,
- lament,
- last debt,
- last muster,
- last rest,
- last roundup,
- last sleep,
- leaving life,
- loss of life,
- making an end,
- moan,
- monody,
- mourn,
- passing,
- passing away,
- passing bell,
- passing over,
- peal,
- peal ringing,
- pealing,
- perishing,
- quietus,
- release,
- repine,
- requiem,
- rest,
- reward,
- ring,
- ring changes,
- ringing,
- sentence of death,
- shades of death,
- shadow of death,
- sigh,
- sing the blues,
- sleep,
- somatic death,
- sorrow,
- sound,
- sound a knell,
- summons of death,
- threnode,
- threnody,
- ting,
- ting-a-ling,
- tingle,
- tingling,
- tink,
- tinkle,
- tinkling,
- tinnitus,
- tintinnabulate,
- toll,
- tolling,
- weep over