knell

• POS: Noun, Verb (intransitive), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

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;  [1913 Webster]
"The dead man's knell
Is there scarce asked for who."  [1913 Webster]
"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day."  [1913 Webster]

knell, v. i. [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.  [1913 Webster]
"Not worth a blessing nor a bell to knell for thee."  [1913 Webster]
"Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known,
Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word, “alone”."  [1913 Webster]

knell, v. t. 

 To summon, as by a knell.  [1913 Webster]
"Each matin bell, the baron saith,
Knells us back to a world of death."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

knell, n. & v.
--n.
1 the sound of a bell, esp. when rung solemnly for a death or funeral.
2 an announcement, event, etc., regarded as a solemn warning of disaster.
--v.
1 intr. a (of a bell) ring solemnly, esp. for a death or funeral. b make a doleful or ominous sound.
2 tr. proclaim by or as by a knell (knelled the death of all their hopes).

Idiom

ring the knell of announce or herald the end of.

Etymology

OE cnyll, cnyllan: perh. infl. by bell

THESAURUS

knell

annihilation, bane, bell, bemoan, bewail, biological death, bong, cessation of life, change ringing, chime, chiming, chink, clang, clanging, clangor, clank, clanking, clinical death, clink, coronach, crossing the bar, curtains, dead march, death, death bell, death knell, death song, debt of nature, decease, demise, departure, deplore, ding, ding-a-ling, dingdong, dinging, dingle, dirge, dissolution, dong, donging, doom, dying, ebb of life, elegize, elegy, end, end of life, ending, epicedium, eternal rest, eulogy, exit, expiration, extinction, extinguishment, final summons, finger of death, funeral march, funeral oration, funeral ring, funeral song, give sorrow words, going, going off, gong, grave, graveside oration, grieve, hand of death, jangle, jaws of death, jingle, jingle-jangle, jinglejangle, jingling, keen, knelling, lament, last debt, last muster, last rest, last roundup, last sleep, leaving life, loss of life, making an end, moan, monody, mourn, passing, passing away, passing bell, passing over, peal, peal ringing, pealing, perishing, quietus, release, repine, requiem, rest, reward, ring, ring changes, ringing, sentence of death, shades of death, shadow of death, sigh, sing the blues, sleep, somatic death, sorrow, sound, sound a knell, summons of death, threnode, threnody, ting, ting-a-ling, tingle, tingling, tink, tinkle, tinkling, tinnitus, tintinnabulate, toll, tolling, weep over

ROGET THESAURUS

knell

Lamentation

N lament, lamentation, wail, complaint, plaint, murmur, mutter, grumble, groan, moan, whine, whimper, sob, sigh, suspiration, heaving, deep sigh, cry, scream, howl, outcry, wail of woe, ululation, frown, scowl, tear, weeping, flood of tears, fit of crying, lacrimation, lachrymation, melting mood, weeping and gnashing of teeth, plaintiveness, languishment, condolence, mourning, weeds, willow, cypress, crape, deep mourning, sackcloth and ashes, lachrymatory, knell, deep death song, dirge, coronach, nenia, requiem, elegy, epicedium, threne, monody, threnody, jeremiad, jeremiade, ullalulla, mourner, grumbler, Noobe, Heraclitus, lamenting, in mourning, in sackcloth and ashes, sorrowing, sorrowful, mournful, tearful, lachrymose, plaintive, plaintful, querulous, querimonious, in the melting mood, threnetic, in tears, with tears in one's eyes, with moistened eyes, with watery eyes, bathed in tears, dissolved in tears, like Niobe all tears, elegiac, epicedial, de profundis, les larmes aux yeux, Int, heigh-ho!, alas!, alack!, O dear!, ah me!, woe is me!, lackadaisy!, well a day!, lack a day!, alack a day!, wellaway!, alas the day!, O tempora O mores!, what a pity!, miserabile dictu!, O lud lud!, too true!, tears standing in the eyes, tears starting from the eyes, eyes suffused, eyes swimming, eyes brimming, eyes overflowing with tears, if you have tears prepare to shed them now, interdum lacrymae pondera vocis habent, strangled his language in his tears, tears such as angels weep.