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Webster 1913 Edition

Bellows

Bel′lows

,
Noun.
s
ing.
&
pl.
[OE.
bely
,
below
, belly, bellows, AS.
bælg
,
bælig
, bag, bellows, belly. Bellows is prop. a pl. and the orig. sense is bag. See
Belly
.]
An instrument, utensil, or machine, which, by alternate expansion and contraction, or by rise and fall of the top, draws in air through a valve and expels it through a tube for various purposes, as blowing fires, ventilating mines, or filling the pipes of an organ with wind.
Bellows camera
,
in photography, a form of camera, which can be drawn out like an accordion or bellows.
–
Hydrostatic bellows
.
See
Hydrostatic
.
–
A pair of bellows
,
the ordinary household instrument for blowing fires, consisting of two nearly heart-shaped boards with handles, connected by leather, and having a valve and tube.

Webster 1828 Edition

Bellows

BEL'LOWS

,
Noun.
sing.and plu.[L.bulga] An instrument, utensil or machine for blowing fire, either in private dwellings or in forges, furnaces and shops. It is so formed as by being dilated and contracted, to inhale air by a lateral orifice which is opened and closed with a valve, and to propel it through a tube upon the fire.

Definition 2024

bellows

bellows

English

The bellows for a church organ

Noun

bellows

  1. A device for delivering pressurized air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location. At its most simple terms a bellows is a container which is deformable in such a way as to alter its volume which has an outlet or outlets where one wishes to blow air.
    When wood fires were common, so were bellows for helping start them.‎
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberry picker's overalls.
  2. Any flexible container or enclosure, as one used to cover a moving joint.
  3. (informal or archaic) The lungs.
  4. (photography) Flexible, light-tight enclosures connecting the lensboard and the camera back.
Usage notes
  • "Bellows" is used with both singular and plural verbs. One can even find "A bellows is/was".
Related terms
Translations

Etymology 2

See bellow

Noun

bellows

  1. plural of bellow

Verb

bellows

  1. third-person singular simple present indicative form of bellow

Anagrams

Etymology

From Middle English belwes, plural of belu, belw, a northern form of beli, from Old English belg, cf. bælġ, from Proto-Germanic *balgiz. Compare German Balg. See also belly.

Pronunciation

Hand bellows
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈbɛl.oʊz/
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈbɛl.əʊz/
  • Rhymes: -ɛləʊz

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