chime Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun a percussion instrument consisting of a set of tuned bells that are struck with a hammer; used as an orchestral instrument
gong; bell.
verb emit a sound
- bells and gongs chimed

See Chimb.

OE. chimbe, prop., cymbal, OF. cymbe, cymble, in a dialectic form, chymble, F. cymbale, L. cymbalum, fr. Gr. . See Cymbal.

The harmonious sound of bells, or of musical instruments.
Instruments that made melodius chime. Milton.
A set of bells musically tuned to each other; specif., in the pl., the music performed on such a set of bells by hand, or produced by mechanism to accompany the striking of the hours or their divisions.
We have heard the chimes at midnight. Shak.
Pleasing correspondence of proportion, relation, or sound. "Chimes of verse." Cowley.

See Chime, n.

imperfect & past participle Chimed ; present participle & verbal noun Chiming

To sound in harmonious accord, as bells.
To be in harmony; to agree; to sut; to harmonize; to correspond; to fall in with.
Everything chimed in with such a humor. W. irving.
To join in a conversation; to express assent; -- followed by in or in with. Colloq.
To make a rude correspondence of sounds; to jingle, as in rhyming. Cowley

To cause to sound in harmony; to play a tune, as upon a set of bells; to move or strike in harmony.
And chime their sounding hammers. Dryden.
To utter harmoniously; to recite rhythmically.
Chime his childish verse. Byron.