The Collaborative International Dictionary
Buoy \Buoy\ (bwoi or boi; 277), n. [D. boei buoy, fetter, fr.
OF. boie, buie, chain, fetter, F. bou['e]e a buoy, from L.
boia. ``Boiae genus vinculorum tam ferreae quam ligneae.''
--Festus. So called because chained to its place.] (Naut.)
A float; esp. a floating object moored to the bottom, to mark
a channel or to point out the position of something beneath
the water, as an anchor, shoal, rock, etc.
Anchor buoy, a buoy attached to, or marking the position of, an anchor.
Bell buoy, a large buoy on which a bell is mounted, to be rung by the motion of the waves.
Breeches buoy. See under Breeches.
Cable buoy, an empty cask employed to buoy up the cable in rocky anchorage.
Can buoy, a hollow buoy made of sheet or boiler iron, usually conical or pear-shaped.
Life buoy, a float intended to support persons who have fallen into the water, until a boat can be dispatched to save them.
Nut buoy or Nun buoy, a buoy large in the middle, and tapering nearly to a point at each end.
To stream the buoy, to let the anchor buoy fall by the ship's side into the water, before letting go the anchor.
Whistling buoy, a buoy fitted with a whistle that is blown by the action of the waves.
Wiktionary
n. A buoy on which is mounted a bell with four clappers, hung inside an iron cage, which is rung by the motion of the waves
WordNet
n. a buoy with a bell on it [syn: gong buoy]
Usage examples of "bell buoy".
Hatch checked the binnacle and turned his gaze seaward, toward the two light buoys midchannel and the peppercan bell buoy at the mouth of the bay.
Also, the broad mouth of the Kennebec River, at Bay Point, had a bell buoy and a light, and there might have been a lighthouse on Stage Island as long ago as 1939—.
Ole Bubba, an Jenny, an my mama, an Dan, an Sue, is gone now, but probly not too far, cause ever time I hear a big ole foghorn on the water, or a bell from a bell buoy, I think of them.
And there were lights, also, on the packet steamer by the dock, and a single shining ruby on the bell buoy out to sea.
Sometimes I wake up in the night and listen for the waves and for the foghorn of the lighthouse, and the bell buoy off China Point.
From below, he could hear the distant thunder of the surf, the crying of gulls, the dolorous clang of a bell buoy.