subs. phr. (common).—The clock in the tower of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster: named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the Commissioner of Works, under whose supervision it was constructed: it was commenced in 1856, and finished in 1857.
1869. The Register, or Magazine of Biography, 213. With Sir Charles Barry’s sanction he designed the ornament cast on the Westminster Bell, familiarly known as BIG BEN.
1880. Punch, 2039, 51. BIG BEN struck two, and the house adjourned.
