bellows

a device producing a strong current of air; the lungs

Not to be confused with:

bellow – a loud cry of an animal; to roar; to utter in a loud voice

bel·lows

(bĕl′ōz, -əz)

pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)

a. An apparatus for producing a strong current of air, as for sounding a pipe organ or increasing the draft to a fire, consisting of a flexible, valved air chamber that is contracted and expanded by pumping to force the air through a nozzle.

b. Something, such as the pleated windbag of an accordion, that resembles this apparatus.

2. The lungs.

[Middle English belowes, from Old English belgas, pl. of belg; see bhelgh- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bellows

(ˈbɛləʊz)

n (functioning as singular or plural)

1. (Mechanical Engineering) Also called: pair of bellows an instrument consisting of an air chamber with flexible sides or end, a means of compressing it, an inlet valve, and a constricted outlet that is used to create a stream of air, as for producing a draught for a fire or for sounding organ pipes

2. (Photography) photog a telescopic light-tight sleeve, connecting the lens system of some cameras to the body of the instrument

3. (Mechanical Engineering) a flexible corrugated element used as an expansion joint, pump, or means of transmitting axial motion

[C16: from plural of Old English belig belly]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bel•lows

(ˈbɛl oʊz, -əz)

n. (used with a sing. or pl. v.)

1. a device for producing a strong current of air, consisting of a chamber that can be expanded to draw in air through a valve and contracted to expel it through a tube.

2. something resembling a bellows in form, as the collapsible part of some cameras.

3. the lungs.

[before 900; Middle English bel(o)wes (pl.), Old English belga, short for blǣst belg literally, blowing bag]

Bel•lows

(ˈbɛl oʊz)

n.

George Wesley, 1882–1925, U.S. painter.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

bellows - a mechanical device that blows a strong current of air; used to make a fire burn more fiercely or to sound a musical instrument

blower - a device that produces a current of air

plural, plural form - the form of a word that is used to denote more than one

Translations

blaasbalk

مُنْفاخ كير الحَدّاد

měchměchy

blæsebælg

Blasebalg Gebläse Balg

φυσούνα

paljepalkeet

soufflet

fújtató

físibelgur

mantice soffietto

dumplės

plēšas

mech

bellows

[ˈbeləʊz] NPL → fuelle msing
a pair of bellows → un fuelle

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

bellows

[ˈbɛləʊz] npl (for fire, in forge) → soufflet mbell pepper n (mainly US) → poivron mbell push n (British) → bouton m de sonnettebell ringer n → sonneur m de cloche

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

bellows

pl → Blasebalg m; a pair of bellows → ein Blasebalg

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

bellows

[ˈbɛləʊz] npl (of forge, organ) → mantice m; (for fire) → soffietto

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

bellows

(ˈbeləuz) noun plural

an instrument for making a current of air.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

She found him busy with his bellows, sweating and hard at work, for he was making twenty tripods that were to stand by the wall of his house, and he set wheels of gold under them all that they might go of their own selves to the assemblies of the gods, and come back again--marvels indeed to see.

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But here was Brother Bellows, who had been in the great Bank case, and who could probably tell us more.

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He held a pair of bellows upon his knee, with which he had apparently been endeavouring to rouse it into more cheerful action; but he had fallen into deep thought; and with his arms folded on them, and his chin resting on his thumbs, fixed his eyes, abstractedly, on the rusty bars.

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He had a large pair of bellows, with a long slender muzzle of ivory: this he conveyed eight inches up the anus, and drawing in the wind, he affirmed he could make the guts as lank as a dried bladder.

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The blows of the basement hammer every day grew more and more between; and each blow every day grew fainter than the last; the wife sat frozen at the window, with tearless eyes, glitteringly gazing into the weeping faces of her children; the bellows fell; the forge choked up with cinders; the house was sold; the mother dived down into the long church-yard grass; her children twice followed her thither; and the houseless, familyless old man staggered off a vagabond in crape; his every woe unreverenced; his grey head a scorn to flaxen curls!

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Often after dark, when I was pulling the bellows for Joe, and we were singing Old Clem, and when the thought how we used to sing it at Miss Havisham's would seem to show me Estella's face in the fire, with her pretty hair fluttering in the wind and her eyes scorning me, - often at such a time I would look towards those panels of black night in the wall which the wooden windows then were, and would fancy that I saw her just drawing her face away, and would believe that she had come at last.

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there are so many great thoughts that do nothing more than the bellows: they inflate, and make emptier than ever.

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Newman had caught up, by the rusty nozzle, an old pair of bellows, which were just undergoing a flourish in the air preparatory to a descent upon the head of Mr Squeers, when Frank, with an earnest gesture, stayed his arm, and, taking another step in advance, came so close behind the schoolmaster that, by leaning slightly forward, he could plainly distinguish the writing which he held up to his eye.

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By the time Paul and the trapper saw fit to terminate the fresh bursts of merriment, which the continued abstraction of their learned companion did not fail to excite, he commenced breathing again, as if the suspended action of his lungs had been renewed by the application of a pair of artificial bellows, and was heard to make use of the ever afterwards proscribed term, on that solitary occasion, to which we have just alluded.

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Upon one side of the doomed pair the thag bellowed and advanced, and upon the other tarag, the frightful, crept toward them with gaping mouth and dripping fangs.

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They bellowed and pawed up the soft earth with their hoofs, rolling their eyes and tossing their heads.

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Instantly the brute sprang to his feet with a bellow of pain and rage, and at the same instant Tarzan rushed in upon his left side with the stone knife, striking repeatedly behind the shoulder.

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