belive, quickly. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 227; B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1. Still in use in Scotland and the north of England (EDD.). ME. bi life, lit. with life or liveliness. See [bilive].
bell, to bear the, to take the first place, be the first, be pre-eminent. ‘Win the spurres, and beare the bell’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Aristippus, § 1. From the precedence of the bell-wether; see NED.
bellibone, a fair lass. ‘Such a bellibone’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 92. From F. belle et bonne, fair and good girl. See [bonnibell].
bells, pl.: in phr. to take one’s bells, used fig., to be ready to fly away. Ford, Sun’s Darling, iii. 1 (Humour). A hawk had light bells fastened to her legs before she flew off, that her flight might be traced.
belly-cheat, an apron. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen); ‘A belly-chete, an apern’, Harman, Caveat, p. 83. See [backcheat].
belly-cheer, feasting, gluttony. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. ix. 114; also, meat, viands; ‘Carrelure de ventre, meat, belly-timber, belly-cheere’, Cotgrave.
belsire, grandfather. Drayton, Pol. viii. 73; beel sire, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 321. 6; bele-fader, id. lf. 344, back, 27; ‘Belsyre, grant pere’, Palsgrave. ME. belsyr, or belfadyr, ‘Avus’ (Prompt.).
beme, a trumpet. Beames (spelt beaumous) pl., Morte Arthur, leaf 423, back, 1; bk. xxi. ch. 4. ME. beme (Chaucer, Hous Fame, 1240). OE. (Mercian) bēme.
bemoiled, covered with dirt. Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 77. In prov. use in the Midlands (EDD.).
bemol, B flat, in the musical scale. In the old sets of hexachords, which began with C, G, or F; it was found necessary, in the hexachord beginning with F, to flatten the note B. The new note, thus introduced into the old scale, was called B-mol or Be-mol, i.e. B soft; from OF. mol, soft; L. mollis. Its symbol was b, later ♭, which afterwards became a general symbol for a flattened note. ‘La, sol, re, Softly bemole’, Skelton, Phyllyp Sparowe, 533. Also, a half-note; ‘Two beemolls, or halfe-notes’, Bacon, Sylva, § 104.