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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
knell
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
death knell
▪ The loss of Georgia would sound the death knell of Republican hopes.
(sound/strike/toll) the death knell for/of sth
▪ The loss of Georgia would sound the death knell of Republican hopes.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
sound
▪ This would, in effect, finally sound the death knell for the Convention.
▪ Energy analyst Walt Patterson believes this would sound the death knell for research.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Knell

Knell \Knell\, v. t. To summon, as by a knell.

Each matin bell, the baron saith, Knells us back to a world of death.
--Coleridge.

Knell

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.

The dead man's knell Is there scarce asked for who.
--Shak.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
--Gray.

Knell

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.

Not worth a blessing nor a bell to knell for thee.
--Beau. & Fl.

Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known, Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word, ``alone''.
--Ld. Lytton.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
knell

Old English cnyll "sound made by a bell when struck or rung slowly," perhaps of imitative origin. The Welsh cnull "death-bell" appears to be a borrowing from English. For vowel evolution, see bury.

knell

Old English cnyllan "to toll a bell; strike, knock," cognate with Middle High German erknellen "to resound," Old Norse knylla "to beat, thrash;" probably imitative. Related: Knelled; knelling.

Wiktionary
knell

n. the sound of a bell knelling; a toll. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) to ring a bell slowly, especially for a funeral; to toll. 2 (context transitive English) to signal or proclaim something by ringing a bell.

WordNet
knell
  1. n. the sound of a bell rung slowly to announce a death or a funeral or the end of something

  2. v. ring as in announcing death

  3. make (bells) ring, often for the purposes of musical edification; "Ring the bells"; "My uncle rings every Sunday at the local church" [syn: ring]

Wikipedia
Knell

Knell is a surname, and may refer to:

  • Eric Knell (1903–1987), English Anglican Bishop
  • Gary Knell (born 1954), American broadcast executive
  • Phil Knell (1865–1944), American baseball player
  • William Knell (actor) (d 1587), Elizabethan English actor
  • William Adolphus Knell (1801–1875), British maritime painter
  • William Calcott Knell (1830–1880), British landscape painter

A knell is also the sound of a bell for a funeral:

  • Death knell

Usage examples of "knell".

Drums, strike alarum, raise them from their sport, And ring aloud the knell of Gaveston!

She knell heavily, feeling the cool dampness seep through her skirts to chill her knees, and scooped up a little earth in her hands, scrabbling at it, ending up with a handful of earthworms and wild violet roots for her pains.

I fold All my sons when their knell is knolled, And so with living motion all are fed, And the quick spring like weeds out of the dead.

Over the shoulders of Harry Vincent and Rufe Dodson came a whispered, mirthless laugh that carried the solemn tone of a knell.

For some time, he had speculated that putting the tailpiece to a rattlesnake inside the instrument would work a vast improvement on the sound, would give it a sizz and knell like no other.

It could have been a knell for Zune and his men who had left their impregnable lair, or possibly that tone of parting mirth was in recollection of Alban Sark, the notorious White Skull whose death had enabled The Shadow to adopt his ways and thereby put an end to his evil successors, Tanjor Zune and Philo Brenz.

A monster meeting was held on Newhall Hill, and there, in half a dozen words, Muntz sounded the knell of the new Tory Ministry.

If those who have assailed us are reduced to contemptible proportions and their Vote of Censure on the National Government is converted to a vote of censure upon its authors, make no mistake, a cheer will go up from every friend of Britain and every faithful servant of our cause, and the knell of disappointment will ring in the ears of the tyrants we are striving to overthrow.

But if, on a more extended observation, it should be found that the same ominous groups of cases clustering about individual practitioners were observed in a remote country, at different times, and in widely separated regions, it would seem incredible that any should be found too prejudiced or indolent to accept the solemn truth knelled into their ears by the funeral bells from both sides of the ocean,--the plain conclusion that the physician and the disease entered, hand in hand, into the chamber of the unsuspecting patient.

When I pulled down her eyelid and saw the dead white conjunctiva a knell sounded in my mind.

Excited shouts, cold death knell of iron, boots pounding for the doorway!

I counted, and with each numeral there came a sort of shudder, as if it had been a death knell.

They had rung the bells when King Robert died, she remembered, but this was different, no slow dolorous death knell but a joyful thunder.

Gotaro's voice sounded like a death knell to Nangi as his gaze followed his friend's lead.

His manner was so casual when he was sounding the death knell of Tara.