Forms: 5 knollen, (-yn), 5–6 knolle, 6–7 knol, 6–8, 9 dial. knowl, (8 knowll), 7– knoll. [Goes with KNOLL sb.2]
1. trans. To ring, toil (a bell); = KNELL v. 2. Also fig. Now arch. and dial.
1467. Eng. Gilds, 401. As often as they shallen here the grete belle of the parisshe of Seint Androwe to be knolled … and after that rongen out.
a. 1485. Promp. Parv., 280/2 (MS. S.). Knollyn, pulso.
1605. Shaks., Macb., V. viii. 50. I would not wish them to a fairer death: And so his Knell is knoll’d.
1871. Browning, Pr. Hohenst., 1942. So do the old enthroned decrepitudes Acknowledge, in the rotten hearts of them, Their knell is knolled.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Knowl, to knoll; to toll a bell.
2. intr. Of a bell or clock: To sound, ring a knell, toll; KNELL v. 3. Now chiefly dial.
1582. Munday, Eng. Rom. Life, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), II. 179. Soon after, the bell knowleth againe, when as the students … walk to the Romayne colledge.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 114. Where bels haue knoll’d to Church.
1612. Two Noble K., I. i. Remember that your fame Knolls in the ear o’ the world.
1815. Byron, Parisina, xv. For a departing being’s soul The death-hymn peals and the hollow bells knoll.
1876. Whitby Gloss., Knoll, to toll as a bell.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., s.v., I heard the bell knoll a piece sin [= a bit since].
b. trans. To ring a knell for. c. To ring or toll out.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. i. 103. His Tongue Sounds euer after as a sullen Bell Remembred, knolling a departing Friend.
1842. Tennyson, Gardener’s D., 180. All that night I heard The heavy clocks knolling the drowsy hours.
3. trans. To summon by the sound of a bell.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 121. We haue seene better dayes, And haue with holy bell bin knowld to Church.
1820. Byron, Juan, V. l. They heard No Christian knoll to table.
1844. Lytton, trans. Schiller’s Fridolin, 90. From the church-tower clangs the bell Knolling souls that would repent To the Holy Sacrament.
1894. Times, 17 July, 9/3. Every woman who ever has been knolled to church.
Hence Knolling vbl. sb.; also Knoller, one who knolls.
1480. Waterf. Arch., in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 315. The knollyng of the bell in the chappell.
1538. Injunctions, in Strype, Eccl. Mem. (1721), I. xlii. 322. The Knoling of Aves after service … henceforth to be left.
1611. Cotgr., Carillonneur, a chymer, or knowler, of bels.
1837–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit. (1847), III. 122. The knolling of Church bells.
1877. Lee, Gloss. Liturg., Knoller, 2. a sexton or sacristan.
