[f. BELL sb.1]
1. trans. To furnish with a bell. To bell the cat: to hang a bell round the cat’s neck, according to the Fable (see BELL sb.1 9), and esp. a. to perform personally this hazardous feat, to undertake a perilous part or be the ring-leader in any movement.
In the latter use, there is immediate reference to the story or legend, related by Lindsay of Pitscottie, that when certain of the Scottish barons formed a secret conspiracy to put down the obnoxious favorites of James III. in 1482, a moment of grave suspense followed the inquiry ‘Who would undertake to enter the royal presence and seize the victims?’ which was terminated by the exclamation of Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, ‘I will bell the cat,’ whence his historical appellation of ‘Archibald Bell-the-cat.’
1762. J. Man, Buchanan’s Hist. Scot., XII. § 41. 349, note. Earl Archbald hearing the parable answered sadly, I shall bell the cat, meaning Cochrane, the great and terrible minion.
1791. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1858), 169/2. He would be glad to see who would bell the cat, alluding to the fable.
1840. Arnold, Life & Corr. (1844), II. ix. 186. I was willing to bell the cat, hoping that some who were able might take up what I had begun.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., I. xii. 232. As nobody was afraid of him, there was no difficulty in finding the man to bell the cat.
b. To venture to grapple or contend with (a dangerous opponent). Sc.
1721. Wodrow, Hist. Ch. Scot., II. 384 (Jam.). How little justice … poor simple country people, who could not bell the cat with them, had to look for.
1825. Scott, Betrothed, Introd. (1876), 19. It has fallen on me, as we Scotsmen say, to bell-the-cat with you.
2. trans. To cause to swell or bulge out.
1870. Eng. Mech., 11 Feb., 535/2. He must bell them [tubes] out a little.
3. (nonce-wd.)
1863. Dickens, Mrs. Lirriper’s Lodgings, i. They [servant girls] get bell’d off their legs [i.e., ‘run off their legs’ in answering bells].
