lowbell

English

Etymology

From low +‎ bell. See low (“a flame”).

Alternative forms

low-bell

Noun

lowbell (plural lowbells)

  1. A bell used in fowling at night, to frighten birds, and, with a sudden light, to make them fly into a net.
    • c. 1700-1708, William King, Art of Love
      The fowler's lowbell robs the lark of sleep.
  2. (obsolete) A bell to be hung on the neck of a sheep or cow.
    • 1831, Thomas Burgeland Johnson, The Sportsman's Cyclopedia, page 527:
      […] take the lowbell […] ; toll this bell just as a weather sheep does, while he is feeding in pasture ground […]
    • 2009, Newton Key, ‎Robert Bucholz, Sources and Debates in English History, 1485-1714 (page 113)
      […] pipes and horns were sounded, together with lowbells [cow- or sheep-bell] and other smaller bells which the company had amongst them […]

References

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