▪ I. bellows, n.
(ˈbɛləʊz, ˈbɛləs)
Forms: α. sing. 1 -bælᵹ, belᵹ, beliᵹ, bylᵹ, byliᵹ, 3 beli, 3–4 bely, ? buly; pl. 3–4 belies, bulies, 5 belyes, belise, belice, 6 bales, bellies, bellyis. β. sing. 4 belw, belu, below, 5–6 bel(l)owe; pl. 4 belwes, bellows, 5 belwis, -wys, -owys, 6 bellowse, 5–7 bellowes, 7– bellows, (double pl. 7 bellowses, still dial.).
[Now used only in plural: the sing. was still in use in 15th c., and still later in compounds. The OE. name for ‘bellows’ was blǽstbęl(i)ᵹ, blást-bęl(i)ᵹ ‘blast-bag, blowing-bag’ (= ON. blástr-belgr, Sw. blåsbälg, Da. blæsebælg, mod.G. blasebalg); but already in the 11th c. the simple bęlᵹ, bylᵹ, byliᵹ ‘bag’ occurs in this sense in the glossaries. (So also mod.Sw. bälg, and Da. bælger pl. = ‘bellows.’) Thence the ME. beli, bely, buly (ü), really the same word as belly, under which see the remoter etymology. In the sense ‘bellows,’ bely was still used in the sing. by Chaucer, but after 1400 we find this only with the sense ‘belly,’ though the pl. belies, bellies retained the sense ‘bellows’ late in the 16th c. in literature, and bellis, bellice, is still common in the dialects. But in Wyclif we find another form, belu, belw, in 15th c. bellowe (apparently of northern or north. midl. origin), of which the plur. belwes, belowes, bellows became established in 16th c. as the literary form, bellies being thenceforth used only as the plur. of ‘belly’ in the modern sense. In later times bellows has often been construed as a sing., ‘a bellows,’ and occasionally has even received a second plural inflexion, bellowses, which is common in the dialects; cf. ‘a gallows,’ and obs. or dial. pl. gallowses. Hence also the pronunciation (ˈbɛləs), the only one known to orthoepists early in the present century, which has however of late largely given place to (ˈbɛləʊz).
The evidence at present available does not settle whether belu, belw, came down from a non-palatalized form of OE. bęlᵹ, or from the plural inflexions bęlᵹa, bęlᵹum, while beli represented the sing. forms bęliᵹ, bęlᵹe (cf. ME. sing. dai, dei, pl. dawes:—OE. dæᵹ, daᵹas); or, finally, whether it was a northern Eng. adoption of ON. belgr: for each of these hypotheses something may be said. Bellows is app. not cognate with L. follis: see ball n.1 and belly.]
1. An instrument or machine constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. In its simplest form, it consists essentially of a combination of bag and box, formed of an upper and lower board joined by flexible leather sides, enclosing a cavity capable of expansion and contraction, and furnished with a valve opening inwards, through which air enters and fills the expanded cavity, and with a tube or nozzle, through which the air is forced out in a stream when the machine is compressed. It has many modifications of form and structure according to its purpose; and the name is sometimes applied to the ‘blower’ of a blast-furnace. a. An instrument or machine of this kind used to blow a fire; it may be portable, as the common hand-bellows, or fixed, as a smith's bellows. Often, with reference to the two halves or handles, called a pair of bellows, rarely, as sing., a bellows.
| α a 800 Epinal & Erf. Gl. (Sweet O.E.T. 64) Follis, blestbælᵹ, Corpus Gl. blæsbælᵹ. a 1000 in Wülcker Voc. 241 Folliginis, belᵹum; follis, blædbylᵹum. Ibid. 272 Follis, blæstbelᵹ. a 1100 in Ibid. 336 Follis, byliᵹ. Ibid. 517 Follibus, bylᵹum. a 1225 Ancr. R. 296 Þe deouel..mucheleð his beli bles. Ibid. 284 No fur in his smiððe—ne belies. a 1300 W. de Biblesworth in Wright Voc. 171 Le foufou, the bely. c 1300 St. Brandan 467 Tho hurden hi of bulies gret blowinge there. c 1400 Leg. Rood (1871) 85 Scho blew þe belise ferly fast. a 1440 Isumbras 410 A smethymane..blewe thaire belyes bloo. 1523 Fitzherb. Surv. 9 b, The whele gothe by drifte of water to blowe the bales. a 1600 Purgatory in Ever-Green (1761) II. 246 Thocht thay..blaw Ay quhill thair Bellyis ryve. |
| β 1388 Wyclif Jer. vi. 29 The belu [v.r. belw, bely] failide, leed is waastid in the fier. 1398 Test. Ebor. (1836) I. 250 Unum par de melioribus bellows. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 30 Belowe [ed. Pynson 1499, belows], follis. 1463 Bury Wills (1850) 23 A peyre tongys, and a peyre belwys. 1483 Cath. Angl. 27 A Bellowe [v.r. belowys or belice], follis. a 1568 Coverdale Hope Faithf. xxvii. 189 The Lords breath, which is..as a belowes. 1570 Levins Manip. 180 A Belowe, follis. 1611 Bible Jer. vi. 29 The bellowes are burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys.-Mech. x. 74 The blasts of a pair of Bellows. 1676 Hobbes Iliad xviii. 427 Twenty Bellowses in all he had. a 1700 Dryden (J.) Thou..like a bellows, swell'st thy face. 1715 Desaguliers Fires Impr. 137 The Bellows..blows so much the stronger. Ibid. 139 A pair of Bellows that blow constantly. 1791 Cowper Iliad xviii. 585 Full twenty bellows working all at once. 1796 Southey Lett. Spain & Port. (1799) 199 The people make use of a hollow cane instead of a bellows. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 26 Taking the bellows up the fire to blow. 1870 Bryant Iliad II. xviii. 200 From twenty bellows came Their breath into the furnaces. |
b. A similar contrivance for supplying air to a wind-instrument, as an organ, harmonium, or concertina. (In large organs the bellows are usually blown by hydraulic power.)
| 1542 Rec. St. Michaels, Stortf. (1882) 43 For ij schepe⁓kynnes to amend w{supt} all the bellis for the orgons, vijd. 1566 Church-w. Acc. St. Dunstan's, Canterb., One payer of orgens lackeng iij pypes, also thear lacketh the pesys of led belongen to the belowes. 1697 Dryden Alexander's F. 156 Ere heaving bellows learned to blow, While organs yet were mute. 1795 Mason Ch. Music. i. 37 Twelve pair of Bellows, rang'd in stated row, Are joined above, and fourteen more below. 1855 Hopkins & Rimbault Organ ii. (1877) 9 There are two kinds of bellows to be met with in church organs..diagonal and horizontal bellows. |
2. fig. Applied to that which blows up or fans the fire of passion, discord, etc.
| c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶277 The deueles bely..bloweth in man þe fire of flesshly concupiscence. 1576 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 427 By mediation of the Frenche King, a very Bellowse of this fire. 1600 Cherrie & Slae in Ever-Green (1761) II. 110 By Luve his Bellies blawin. 1608 Shakes. Per. i. ii. 39 (1878), Flattery is the bellows blows up sin. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. i. iv. (1675) 24 As Bellows to blow or rekindle Devotion. 1820 Keats Hyperion ii. 176 My voice is not a bellows unto ire. |
3. fig. Applied to the lungs.
bellows to mend, said of a broken-winded horse; also
transf.| 1615 Latham Falconry (1633) 115 The lungs doe draw a breath..When these bellowes doe decay, then health from both doth fade away. 1631 Donne Elegy in Farr S.P. (1848) 21 We, to live, our bellows wear, and breath. 1711 Vind. Sacheverell 91 He..would be insufferably noisy in Company, if his Bellows would hold. 1829 P. Egan Boxiana 2nd Ser. II. 133 It was completely ‘bellows to mend!’ with poor Davy. 1854 ‘C. Bede’ Further Adv. Verdant Green iv. 31 To one gentleman he would pleasantly observe, as he tapped him on the chest, ‘Bellows to mend for you, my buck!’ 1875 Whitney Life Lang. iv. 59 The lungs are, as it were, the bellows of the organ. 1888 F. W. J. Henning Recoll. Prize Ring 156 As the two were sent up it was a case of ‘bellows to mend’, especially with Grant. 1923 J. M. Murry Pencillings 248 Johnny Keats always did have bellows to mend. |
4. The expansible portion of a photographer's camera.
| 1884 Jrnl. Phot. Alman. 115 Attached to BB [the wooden frame of the camera] is a bellows stretching back some six inches when open. Ibid. 116 The back bellows acts as a focussing-cloth. |
5. hydrostatic bellows: see
hydrostatic.
6. Comb. chiefly
attrib., as
bellows action,
bellows-blast,
bellows-board,
bellows-pedal,
bellows-sound,
bellows-spring; also
bellows-blower, the person who works or blows the bellows; hence,
fig. a fanner, inciter of strife, etc.; also, an unskilled assistant whose part is merely mechanical like that of the blower of an organ;
bellows-engine, an engine that works bellows;
bellows-fever (see
quot.);
bellows-fish (so called from its general shape: see
quot.);
bellows-like a., resembling or acting like bellows;
bellows-maker;
bellows-mender;
bellows-nail, a very small nail used in the construction of bellows;
bellows pocket (see
quot. 1960);
bellows press, a small hand printing-press formerly used;
bellows-tail (see
quot.);
bellows-treader, one who works bellows with his feet by treadles.
| 1881 C. Edwards Organs 44 The *bellows action..resembles an ordinary pump action. |
| 1674 Petty Disc. bef. R. Soc. 104 The Strength of such *Bellows-blast. |
| 1658 S. Lennard tr. Charron's Wisd. ii. iii. §16 (1670) 250 The Player or Organist may in every point exercise his Art, without the *bellows-blower. |
| ? 1849 Southey Comm-pl. Bk. ii. 191 The trumpeters and drummers and bellows-blowers of rebellion were conformable Episcopalians. |
| 1865 Times 2 Feb., The prelates play the new organ; the lay members are the mere bellows-blowers. |
| 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 162 The length and leverage..of the *bellows boards. |
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. viii, Its *bellows-engines (in these Churches), thou still seest. |
| 1852 Seidel Organ 133 *Bellows fever, that is, the trembling or faultering of the wards, is a great defect. |
| 1684 Phil. Trans. XXIX. 479 The Scolopax or Trombetta, call'd by our Seamen the *Bellows or Trumpet-Fish. |
| 1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 422/1 Centriscus Scolopax..known in Cornwall by the name of the bellows-fish. |
| 1715 Desaguliers Fires Impr. 140 They..may be had at several *Bellows-makers. |
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iv. i. 210 Flute the *bellowes-mender. |
| 1765 Goldsm. Ess. i, Mr. Bellows-mender hoped Mr. Curry-comb-maker had not caught cold. |
| 1730 Savery in Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 296 Nails of several Sizes, from the smallest Sort of *Bellows-Nails to the largest Sort of Rafter-Nails. |
| 1922 Joyce Ulysses 435 Mrs. Breen in man's frieze overcoat with loose *bellows pockets. 1960 C. W. Cunnington et al. Dict. Eng. Costume 14/2 Bellows pocket, late 19th c. A patch-pocket with side folds capable of expanding or lying flat, like a bellows. Common in Norfolk jackets from 1890 on. |
| 1846 Print. Appar. Amateurs 5 A small and old instrument known amongst printers as the *Bellows Press. |
| 1834 Forbes Dis. Chest 517 Most commonly the *bellows sound is..confined within the limits of the artery or ventricle. |
| 1852 Seidel Organ 39 This ledge is called the *bellows-spring. |
| Ibid. 38 The upper-board has on its end..a prolongation..called the *bellows tail. |
| 1876 J. Hiles Catech. Organ viii. (1878) 53 In many Continental Organs the inflation of the bellows is by treadles instead of handles, and hence the name ‘*bellows-treader.’ |
▪ II. † ˈbellows, v. Obs. rare.
[f. prec.] To blow (with bellows).
to bellows up: to gather
up (wind).
| 1605 Timme Quersit. ii. vii. 137 The fire..which he had spread abroad, and winded or bellowsed, in vaine. 1648 Persecutio Undecim 9 The kindle-coale that the Faction bellowsed to that flame that must consume, etc. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) V. 318 She pouted out her blubber-lips, as if to bellows up wind. |