1. A bell hung round a cow’s neck, to tinkle when the animal moves. (Esp. in Switzerland.)
1783. Virginia Gaz., 6 Dec., 2/2. His head and eye-brows were shaved, tarr’d and feathered, a hog yoke put on his neck, and a cow-bell thereon.
a. 1813. A. Wilson, Foresters, Poet. Wks. (1846), 240. Jumbling cow-bells speak some cottage near.
1869. Tyndall, Light, i. 23. The tinkle of the cow-bells.
2. A name in Scotland and U.S. for Bladder Campion (Silene inflata).
