bell rope

== English == === Noun === bell rope (plural bell ropes) (nautical) A short length of rope, spliced to the eye of the clapper of a ship's bell and by which it is struck. A long length of rope attached by splicing to a church's bell, by which it is struck, and with a sally for holding it. A rope used to ring a bell serving as an old-fashioned doorbell. (obsolete, slang) A lovelock. ==== References ==== John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary