(bel) noun
1. A hollow metallic instrument, usually cup-shaped, which gives forth a ringing sound when it is struck.
2. Anything in the shape of or suggesting a bell.
3. The lower termination of a tubular musical instrument.
4. A bell-shaped flower or corolla, the catkin of the hop, the body of a helmet, etc.
5. Naut. a A stroke on a bell to mark the time on shipboard. b plural With a numeral prefixed, the time so marked, in half-hours, from one to eight, in each period of four hours beginning at midnight, 8 bells marking the commencement of each period.
—Liberty Bell The first bell rung to announce the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia.
—v.t.
1. To put a bell on.
2. To shape like a bell.
—v.i.
3. To take the shape of a bell.
4. To blossom; be in bell, as hops.
—to bell the cat To plan or perform a bold or rash act: from Aesop's fable about the mice who resolved in self-protection to hang a bell on the cat's neck. ◆ Homophone: belle. [OE belle]

(bel) v.i.
To cry, as a buck or stag at rutting time.
—noun The cry of a deer, bittern, etc.; also, a bellow. ◆ Homophone: belle. [OE bellan bellow]

(bel), Alexander Graham,
1847–1922, U.S. physicist and inventor of the telephone, born in Scotland.
—Sir Charles, 1774–1842, Scottish anatomist and surgeon.