Word Direct Answers

What does "knell" mean?

Knell: The stoke of a bell tolled at a funeral or at the death of a person; a death signal; a passing bell; hence, figuratively, a warning of, or a sound indicating, the passing away of anything. The dead man's knell Is there scarce asked for who. Shak. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. Gray.

Additional senses

  1. 2.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.
  2. 3.To summon, as by a knell. Each matin bell, the baron saith, Knells us back to a world of death. Coleridge.

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