chime

See also: chimè

English
This entry needs a sound clip exemplifying the definition.

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /tʃaɪm/
    • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪm

Etymology 1

From Middle English chime, chim, chimbe, chymbe, a shortening of chimbelle (misinterpreted as chymme-belle, chimbe-belle), from Old English ċimbala, ċimbal (“cymbal”), from Latin cymbalum.

Noun

chime (plural chimes)

  1. (music) A musical instrument producing a sound when struck, similar to a bell (e.g. a tubular metal bar) or actually a bell. Often used in the plural to refer to the set: the chimes.
    Hugo had a recording of someone playing the chimes against a background of surf noise that she found calming.
    Sylvia was a chime player in the school orchestra.
  2. An individual ringing component of such a set.
    Peter removed the C♯ chime from its mounting so that he could get at the dust that had accumulated underneath.
  3. A small bell or other ringing or tone-making device as a component of some other device.
    The professor had stuffed a wad of gum into the chime of his doorbell so that he wouldn't be bothered.
  4. The sound of such an instrument or device.
    The copier gave a chime to indicate that it had finished printing.
    Chimes sing Sunday morn.
  5. A small hammer or other device used to strike a bell.
    Strike the bell with the brass chime hanging on the chain next to it.
Synonyms
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

chime (third-person singular simple present chimes, present participle chiming, simple past and past participle chimed)

  1. (intransitive) To make the sound of a chime.
    The microwave chimed to indicate that it was done cooking.
    I got up for lunch as soon as the wall clock began chiming noon.
  2. (transitive) To cause to sound in harmony; to play a tune, as upon a set of bells; to move or strike in harmony.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
      And chime their sounding hammers.
  3. (transitive) To utter harmoniously; to recite rhythmically.
  4. (intransitive) To agree; to correspond.
    The other lab's results chimed with mine, so I knew we were on the right track with the research.
  5. To make a rude correspondence of sounds; to jingle, as in rhyming.
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

chime (plural chimes)

  1. Alternative form of chine (“edge of a cask; part of a ship; etc.”)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “chime”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

Irish

Noun

chime m

  1. Lenited form of cime.

Japanese

Romanization

chime

  1. Rōmaji transcription of ちめ

Spanish

Verb

chime

  1. inflection of chimar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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