Wiktionary
n. (context idiomatic English) Extra features added for show rather than function; fancy additions or features.
Wikipedia
Bells and whistles refers to non-essential features, visual or functional, that are an enhancement to an object.
It may also refer to:
- More Bells and Whistles (computer animation), a 1990 computer animation created by Wayne Lytle
- Detana!! TwinBee, a 1991 coin-operated video game produced by Konami (released outside Japan as Bells & Whistles)
- "Bells and Whistles", a song by Andrew Jackson Jihad from the 2007 album People That Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World
Usage examples of "bells and whistles".
Then all sorts of warning bells and whistles went off in my head, not to mention the voice of sanity, which was screaming to hell with my honor.
Un-like wormholes or transporters or warp drive or any other method of getting somewhere fast, the Iconians had built their portals with a minimum of bells and whistles.
You have to dispense with the hypotheses that require extra bells and whistles in order to make sense.
A din of bells and whistles reverberated through the air while thundering booms rocked the floor.
Him, too, oh yes, he had a brand-new cell phone, all the bells and whistles—.