Forms: 3–4 chymbe, chimbe, 4–6 chyme, 4, 7 chim, 5 chymme, (6 cheyme, cheime), 4– chime. [This and the verb of same form are of somewhat obscure history; but they were evidently derived in some way from L. cymbalum CYMBAL, in OE. cimbal, cimbala, which would naturally give a ME. *chimbel, *chimble. Cf. also MHG. zimbel, zimel m. and n., zimbele f. ‘a small bell struck with a hammer.’ But while ME. chimbe, chime, chim agrees with the first part of chimbel, the loss of the latter part is not clearly accounted for (cf. however much, lite, badde, from muchel, litel, bæddel). Chimbe may however have been from OF.: Godefroy has a single instance of chinbe = cymbal. As to the passages in which ‘cymbal’ is expressed by chymbe belle, chymme belle, these may indicate that a ME. *chimbel was thus popularly understood and divided, making chimbe or chim a distinct word; but, on the other hand, if chimbe or chim already existed, the analysis of chimbel as chimbe bell would be equally natural. The following are the instances in question:
c. 1300. K. Alis., 1852. Anon he doth his bemen blowe, V. C. [500] on a throwe. His chymbe belle he doth rynge, And doth dassche gret taborynge.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 75. Ch(y)mme belle [H. P. chymne bell], cimbalum].
† 1. A cymbal. Obs.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter Ps. cl. 5. Loves him ever in lande, In chimbes ful wele ringande [Wyclif, cymbalis wel sounende].
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12193. Als a chim [Gött. chime, Trin. chymbe] or brasin bell, Þat noþer can vnderstand ne tell.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 11387. Fyþeles, sitoles, sautreours, Belles, chymbes, and symfan.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter cl. 5. Louys him in chymys wele sownand; louys him in chymys of ioiynge.
† b. ? Instrumental music. Obs.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (MS. Inner Temple cf. Rolls ed. 4209). He couth so mykelle musik and chyme, That the pupille said in his tyme, He was god of fithelers.
2. An apparatus or arrangement for striking a bell or set of bells so as to make it or them ‘chime’ or emit a musical sound.
The earliest method appears to have consisted of hammers actuated by pegs on a revolving barrel.
1463. Bury Wills (1850), 9. I wille yt John Elys … owyr se the chymes at Seynt Marie awter, and the chymes in ye stepyll, therto make a newe barell wiche is redy, and to make plombes of leed and newe lynes and ropys. Ibid., 28. To kepe the clokke, take hede to the chymes … so that the seid chymes fail not to goo thourgh the defawte of the seid sexteyn.
1541. Ludlow Churchw. Acc., 4. Bought a roope for the cheymys.
1593. Rites & Mon. Ch. Durh. (1842), 34. And maide a goodly chyme to be sett on the said bells.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 159. When he speakes, ’Tis like a Chime a mending.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., II. xv. Those curious quadrants … chims and dialls … were first us’d by them.
3. Hence, A set of bells in a church tower, etc., so attuned as to give forth a succession of musical notes, or to be capable of playing tunes when thus struck, or when slightly swung. (See CHIME v.1 2 b.) Applied also to the small set of hand-bells used in the R. C. Ch. service; the set of bells with their strikers in an organ or musical box, etc.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 112. Should that clocke haue (as my tong hath) a chime?
1804. J. Grahame, Sabbath, 98. Almost beyond the sound of city chime.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, I. 213. Noise Of clocks and chimes.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., s.v., A set of three small bells mounted in a stand for ringing by hand, used in the Roman Catholic church service, is also called a chime, or altar chime.
4. The series of musical sounds, or tune, played on such sets of bells when struck in succession.
1530. Palsgr., 205/1. Chyme of belles, gamme.
c. 1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 228. Wee haue heard the Chymes at mid-night.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 331. The chimes, numeri ad quos campanæ pulsantur.
1812. J. Wilson, Isle of Palms, IV. 647. Ring on, ye bells! most pleasant is your chime.
1829. Hood, Eug. Aram, xxvi. All night I lay in agony From weary chime to chime.
1847. A. Gatty, Bell, iv. 24. Chimes on the Continent are played by means of a barrel, like that in a hand organ, on which pegs are so arranged as to lift the levers in such harmonious succession that a tune is produced.
1876. Green, Stray Stud., 3. The chime of a village clock falls faintly on the ear.
5. transf. The sequence of harmonious sounds given forth by any musical instrument; the musical sound, ‘music’ or ‘melody’ of any movement, etc.; harmony, musical concord.
1608. Machin, Dumb Knt., II. It was as silver, as the chime of spheres.
1634. Milton, Comus, 1018. She can teach ye how to climb Higher than the sphery chime. Ibid. (1667), P. L., XI. 559. The sound of Instruments that made melodious chime Was heard, of Harp and Organ.
1772. Sir W. Jones, Seven Fount. (1777), 35. The chime of tuneful strings.
1782. Cowper, Progr. Err., 14. Musical as the chime of tinkling rills.
fig. 1819. Wordsw., Waggoner, Concl. 38. Mighty Fairfield, with a chime Of echoes, to his march kept time.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, V. xl. 134. The silver chime of his melodious eloquence.
6. The rhythm, ‘music,’ or ‘ring’ of verse.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Char. Perfect Anagram, Wks. (1711), 231. For the use of the anagram … It may be the title or inscription of a tomb … the chyme of verses.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Eclog., ix. 73. Now the Chime of Poetry is done.
1850. Whipple, Ess. & Rev. (ed. 3), II. 22. The verse has the sinewy vigor and sonorous chime which generally distinguish his style.
b. depreciatively. Mere rhyme, jingle.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Surv. Leviath., 37. Confounding … their understandings, by a chime of words.
a. 1734. North, Exam., II. iv. ¶ 20 (1740), 242. Nothing but an empty Chime of Words signifying nothing.
c. 1793. Southey, Devil’s Walk, 39. In ding-dong chime of sing-song rhyme.
7. fig. A system of which all the parts are in harmony, showing a correspondence of proportion or relation.
c. 1630. Milton, Solemn Musick, Poems 1645, 23. Disproportion’d sin Jarr’d against natures chime, and with harsh din Broke the fair musick.
1633. B. Jonson, Epithalamion, 25, in Wks. (1640), 240.
| It is the kindly Season of the time, | |
| The Month of youth, which calls all Creatures forth | |
| To doe their Offices in Natures Chime. |
1701. Grew, Cosmol. Sacra, II. vi. § 51. 63 (J.). The Conceptions of Things, are placed, in their several Degrees of Similitude, as in several proportions, one to another: In which harmonious Chimes, the Voice of Reason is often drowned.
8. fig. Accord, harmony, harmonious correspondence. Phrases, To fall into chime with, keep chime with.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Woodnotes, ii. Wks. (Bohn), I. 428. Primal chimes of sun and shade, Of sound and echo.
1858. Sears, Athan., II. xi. 243. Each essential to the other and keeping chime with it.
1858. H. Bushnell, Serm. New Life, 167. A nature gloriously akin to God in its mold,… falling freely into chime with his freedom.
1879. H. Maudsley, Pathol. Mind, viii. 410. Others have found no such happy chime of fact and theory.
9. Comb., as chime-keeper, -maker, -player, etc.; chime-barrel, a barrel or cylinder (in clocks, a prolongation of the striking wheel), studded with pins placed so as to lift the tails of the bell-hammers in due succession; chime-bell: see above.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 332. A chimekeeper, nolarum curator.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., By setting the names of your bells at the head of any tune, that tune may easily be transferred to the chime-barrel.
1872. Ellacombe, Bells of Ch., ii. 21. In the last century … chime barrels in connexion with clocks were more common than at present…—various psalm tunes were usually set on them.
