knell

If “Superman” had opened to critical and commercial failure, it would have been a death knell for the modern superhero genre as we know it.

From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026

Changing consumer tastes also spelled the death knell for the retailer, which has struggled like many High Street firms.

From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026

It marks the death knell of the post–World War II settlement that, however imperfect, wrestled the anarchy of war into a framework designed to condition armed aggression on legal justification.

From Slate ● Jan. 5, 2026

It announced, Ms. Newman writes, the “death knell to any remaining attachment to the inherited ideals of the Greek notion of beauty.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025

On the twelfth knell, the bonfire blazes, white and hot.

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

Time magazine tagged her as one of the death knells of feminism, which seems harsh.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 25, 2017

They worked for him at Modern Photography, Holiday, Travel & Leisure, Town & Country and other publications, most of them gone long before the Internet began sounding its knells for the printed page.

From New York Times ● Jun. 13, 2015

Despite the death knells, Luke Donald spent part of the year at No. 1, and after dropping to No. 3, supplanted Woods at No. 2 by December.

From Golf Digest ● Dec. 5, 2012

Time flies, death urges, knells call, Heaven invites, Hell threatens.

From Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature by Bartlett, John

My name is John Wellington Wells, I'm a dealer in magic and spells, In blessings and curses And ever-filled purses, In prophecies, witches, and knells.

From The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan by Gilbert, W. S. (William Schwenck), Sir

The wind howled around me—I felt impatient and benumbed—and, as I stood irresolute, with a moaning chime the church bell knelled upon my ear.

From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 4 by Various

Lost, lost! one moment knelled the woe of years.

From Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature by Bartlett, John

What disaster it was that was thus knelled forth they knew not, and could hardly believe the tidings when given in articulate words.

From Great Britain and Her Queen by Keeling, Annie E.

At the same time the sad "too late, too late," was knelled in my ears, and I thought of the might-have-been, and rode the merry-go-round of regret's banalities.

From The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne : a Novel by Locke, William John

But its huge clocks had successively knelled three hours after midnight, and all continued still and silent as the grave.

From Quentin Durward by Scott, Walter, Sir

While many of the world's thinkers are worried about the proliferation of births, it is the knelling sound of death that keeps us awake at night.

From Time Magazine Archive

In every traveler's eulogy there is a strain of elegy, and every traveler hearkens to the raven's knelling cry of "Nevermore."

From Time Magazine Archive

It haunted him throughout the day, and when he went to his usual diversion in the afternoon, its cadence was still knelling in his troubled ear.

From Life of Bunyan [Works of the English Puritan divines] by Hamilton, James

All the jolly chase is here, With hawk and horse and hunting spear: Hounds are in their couples yelling, Hawks are whistling, horns are knelling; Merrily, merrily, mingle they.

From Bibliomania; or Book-Madness A Bibliographical Romance by Dibdin, Thomas Frognall

Hounds are in their couples yelling, Hawks are whistling, horns are knelling, Merrily, merrily, mingle they— "Waken, lords and ladies gay."

From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume I. The Songs of Scotland of the past half century by Rogers, Charles