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belfry

noun
/ˈbɛlfɹi/

Etymology

From Middle English belfry, bellfray, belfray, berfrey, barfray, from Old French belfroi, berfroi, berfrey, from Late Latin berfrēdus, from Frankish *bergafriþu, from Proto-Germanic *bergafriþuz, equivalent to barrow + frith. English forms containing bel- as opposed to ber- were preferred due to false association with English bell. Cognate with Middle High German bërcvrit, bërvrit (“defensive tower”) (modern German Bergfried), Middle Dutch bergfrede, bergfert. Doublet of bergfried.

  1. derived from *bergafriþuz✻
  2. derived from *bergafriþu✻
  3. derived from berfrēdus
  4. derived from belfroi
  5. inherited from belfry

Definitions

  1. A tower or steeple typically containing bells, especially as part of a church.

    • “You know, this house does have a belfry filled with local bats. Maybe Laszlo went up there.” “Oh, so like my darling perverted husband, to sniff out the local bordello immediately upon arrival. [chuckles] Could you take me to the belfry?”

  2. A part of a large tower or steeple, specifically for containing bells.

    • From the belfries far and near the funereal deathbell tolled unceasingly while all around the gloomy precincts rolled the ominous warning of a hundred muffled drums punctuated by the hollow booming of pieces of ordnance.

  3. A shed.

  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. A movable tower used in sieges.

    2. An alarm-tower

      An alarm-tower; a watchtower possibly containing an alarm-bell.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for belfry. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA