also 5 belle, 6 bel, beale, 9 dial. beal. [OE. bellan str. vb., to roar, bark, bellow = OHG. bellan, mod.G. bellen to bark; cf. ON. belja to bellow. Cf. BELLOW.]
1. intr. To bellow, roar, make a loud noise.
a. 1000. Riddles, xli. 106 (Gr.). Amasted swin, bearʓ bellende on boc-wuda.
a. 1300. W. de Biblesworth, in Promp. Parv., 30, note. Tor torreye … bole belleth.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 1891. Þe werwolf … went to him evene bellyng as a bole.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, 1803. He gan to blasen out a soun, As loude as belleth winde in Hell.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 30. Bellyn, or lowyn, as nette, mugio.
1570. Levins, Manip., 207. To Beale, boare.
1589. Gold. Mirr. (1851), 3. Which rored and beld, in th’ eares of some.
1873. Browning, Fifine, lxxv. 27. You acted part so well, went all fours upon earth … brayed, belled.
2. spec. of the voice of deer in rutting time.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, E v a. Iche Roobucke certayne bellis by kynde.
1610. Gwillim, Heraldry, III. xiv. (1660), 166. You shall say, a Roe Belleth.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), I. II. v. 324. When the stag cries, he is said to bell.
1808. Scott, Marm., IV. xv. The wild buck bells from ferny brake.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. I. x. § 8. 133. We start them [the hinds], and they go on belling.
3. trans. To utter loudly, to bellow forth.
1596. Spenser, Astrophel, Eclog. 21. Their leaders bell their bleating tunes In doleful sound.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., VIII. 1400. Bell us forth deep the authoritative bay.
