bells ring-chime-toll?

Status
Not open for further replies.

charliedeut

VIP Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Spanish
Home Country
Spain
Current Location
Spain
Hi,

I've been checking on the meanings of those three verbs applied to bells sounding. Would native speakers apply them to different sizes of bells, or just use each one depending on the occasion? Or maybe a combination of both?

The thing is: I can understand that, at a school, for instance, a bell rings to mark the beginning/end of classes.
I can understand that, as MacMillan dictionary says, the bells in clock (like Big Ben, for instance) chime at specific times.
And then comes the case of toll: MacMillan says it's applied to large bells.

Now, in daily usage, is the difference so clear, or are there shades of grey? It's these I'm asking about.

Thank you.

charliedeut
 
Last edited:

Rover_KE

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
'Toll' is used for the sombre, uniformly-spaced, sounding of a single church bell to accompany a funeral procession.

Rover
 

BobK

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Location
Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
There are shades of grey. Broadly, 'chiming' has musical overtones, 'ringing' can sound rather mechanical - a burglar alarm would ring but not chime. A big bell tolls/can be tolled ('toll' can be both transitive and intransitive - 'Who''ll toll the bell?' [trad poem: The Death of Cock Robin] is trans., but John Donne's 'Ask not for whom the bell tolls...') but a handbell can't. On the other hand Big Ben (which is a bell, not a tower) can't 'ting'! But where you draw the lines is variable.

b
PS Now I think of it, 'toll' can often imply death; it evokes a funereal feeling, I think [which I see Rover has already said ;-)]
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top