Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Bells rung on a festive occasion.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A suitable, even an ideal, companion for a funeral, Ferris seemed out of harmony when the joy-bells were ringing.

    More Links 2006

  • You could hear the joy-bells ringing in the capital, and the guns which the citizens were firing off in honor of their Majesties.

    The Rose and the Ring 2006

  • A suitable, even an ideal, companion for a funeral, Ferris seemed out of harmony when the joy-bells were ringing.

    Archive 2006-01-01 2006

  • Outside in the night they continued to sound on, swelling and fainting; and the listener heard in his memory, as it were their harmonies, joy-bells clashing in a northern city, and the acclamations of a multitude, the cries of battle, the gross voices of cannon, the stridor of an animated life.

    Lay Morals 2005

  • It was the wisest public utterance on the subject — the deep, resonant note of truth sounding amid a clamor of foolish joy-bells.

    Mark Twain: A Biography 2003

  • Love, and love alone, was ringing its joy-bells in her soul till external sounds grew muffled, indistinct; until she became unaware of her surroundings.

    Flamsted quarries Mary E. Waller

  • I know it, because the day he was born I picked up my fossil of the sea-horse, just by Dulmansberry church, when the joy-bells were ringing!

    The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 Various

  • On arriving in Athens, the joy-bells rang out and the columns of the Parthenon were flood-lit.

    The Magnificent Montez From Courtesan to Convert Horace Wyndham

  • Whatever she may think, the joy-bells would have rung throughout a great portion of Europe, and certainly the party then dominant in England would have rejoiced exceedingly, if she had been driven back over the Pruth, and had been compelled to busy herself with much-needed reforms in her own country instead of meddling with the affairs of her neighbours and seeking to extend her already overgrown possessions.

    Roumania Past and Present James Samuelson

  • Until once more, the joy-bells pealed out on the blessed Easter morning.

    St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 4, February 1878 Various

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