BELLA STELLA. A name used by old seamen for the cross-staff.
BELLATRIX. γ Orionis.
BELL-BUOY. A large can-buoy on which is placed, in wicker-work, a bell, which is sounded by the heaving and setting of the sea.
BELLIGERENT. An epithet applied to any country which is in a state of warfare.
BELLOWS. An old hand at the bellows. A colloquialism for a man up to his duty. "A fresh hand at the bellows" is said when a gale increases.
BELL-ROPE. A short rope spliced round a thimble in the eye of the bell-crank, with a double wall-knot crowned at its end.
BELLS. See [Watch].
BELL-TOP. A name applied to the top of a quarter-gallery, when the upper stool is hollowed away, or made like a rim.
BELL-WARE. A name of the [Zostera marina] (which see).
BELLY. The swell of a sail. The inner or hollow part of compass timber; the outside is called the back. To belly a sail is to inflate or fill it with the wind, so as to give a taut leech.—Bellying canvas is generally applied to a vessel going free, as when the belly and foot reefs which will not stand on a wind, are shaken out.—Bellying to the breeze, the sails filling or being inflated by the wind.—Bellying to leeward, when too much sail is injudiciously carried.