| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| bellows |
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| SYLLABICATION: | bel·lows |
| PRONUNCIATION: | b l z, - z |
| PLURAL NOUN: | (used with a sing. or pl. verb) 1a. An apparatus for producing a strong current of air, as for sounding a pipe organ or increasing the draft to a fire, consisting of a flexible, valved air chamber that is contracted and expanded by pumping to force the air through a nozzle. b. Something, such as the pleated windbag of an accordion, that resembles this apparatus. 2. The lungs. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English belowes, from Old English belgas, pl. of belg. See bhelgh- in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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