Forms: α. 1–3 cnyll, (1 cnyl), 3 cnul, 5–6 knyll, 6 knyle), 7 knill; β. 4 knel, 6– knell. [OE. cnyll masc.:—*cnulli-, from stem of cnyllan, KNELL v. (perh. a late formation, after orig. i- sbs. from strong vbs.): thence app. Welsh cnul, cnull, ‘death-bell, passing-bell, knell.’ The later form knell goes with the same form in the vb. Cf. Ger. and Du. knoll ‘clap, loud report’ from knellen.] The sound made by a bell when struck or rung, esp. the sound of a bell rung slowly and solemnly, as immediately after a death or at a funeral.
α. c. 961. Æthelwold, Rule St. Benet, xlviii. 74. Siðþan hy þone forman cnyl to none ʓehyren, gangen hy ealle from hyra weorce.
c. 1000. Ælfric’s Colloq., in Wr.-Wülcker, 103. Hwilon ic ʓehyre cnyll, and ic arise.
c. 1300. Vox & Wolf, 251, in Rel. Ant., II. 277. Thi soul-cnul ich wile do ringe.
a. 1512. Fabyan, Will, in Chron., Pref. 5. I will that my knyll be rongyn at my monethes mynde after the guyse of London.
β. c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 149. Laste knel, le dreyne apel.
1530. Aberd. Counc. Reg. (1844), Pref. 37. The watch that beis in Sanct Nicholass stepill … quhen he seis ony man cummand to the toun ridand … [sal] gif bot a knell with the bell, and gif thair beis tua, tua knellis.
a. 1541. Wyatt, Louer showing continual paines (R.). The doleful bell that still doth ring The woful knell of all my ioyes.
1591. Spenser, Daphnaida, 334. Let … the ayre be fil’d with noyse of dolefull knells.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. i. 63. The Bell inuites me. Heare it not, Duncan, for it is a Knell, That summons thee to Heauen, or to Hell.
1750. Gray, Elegy, 1. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, IV. xx. The Convent bell Long time had ceased its matin knell.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. of Fleet, I. 3. All the morning the funeral knell has been tolling.
b. fig. A sound announcing the death of a person or the passing away of something; an omen of death or extinction. Also, allusively, in phrases expressing or having reference to death or extinction.
β. 1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., II. i. 32. Brought agen to th’ Bar, to heare His Knell rung out, his Iudgement.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 148. No stationary steeds Cough their own knell.
1878. Emerson, Misc., Fort. Repub., Wks. (Bohn), III. 393. Men whose names are a knell to all hope of progress.
c. transf. A sound resembling a knell; a doleful cry, dirge, etc.
α. 1647. H. More, Song of Soul, I. III. xxi. Ever and anon a dolefull knill Comes from the fatall Owl.
β. 1820. Shelley, Witch of Atlas, xxv. A knell Of sobbing voices came upon her ears.
d. Comb., as † knell-man, -voice.
1611. G. Vadianus, Panegyr. Verses, in Coryat’s Crudities. Bell-man and knell-man gentrie of the steeple.
1900. Speaker, 9 June, 276/1. I still must only hearken To these knell-voices in the blood.
