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# belfry

«belfry» in Mova's school dictionary: **The tower, or the room at the top of a tower, where…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a belfry, belfries)

### meaning for a pupil

1) The tower, or the room at the top of a tower, where church bells hang. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/belfry/#m1)

2) (idiom) Have bats in the belfry: to be a bit crazy or odd (old-fashioned, jokey). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/belfry/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In stories about old churches and castles a belfry is where bats and owls live and where bell-ringers climb. In history it shows how bells told villagers the time and warned of danger. Phrases: up in the belfry, bats in the belfry.

### examples

- Bats lived up in the belfry of the old church. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/belfry/#x1)
- The bell-ringers climbed the steep stairs to the belfry. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/belfry/#x2)
- The bells in the belfry rang out at noon. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/belfry/#x3)
- (old-fashioned) "He's got bats in the belfry," said Grandad. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/belfry/#x4)
- We could see the belfry from the village green. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/belfry/#x5)
- Pigeons nested in the belfry. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/belfry/#x6)
- As soon as the boy reached the belfry, and turned himself round to seize the rope, he saw upon the stairs, near the sounding-hole, a white figure. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/belfry/#x7)

### note

Countable: belfries (y to ies). It is not related to the word "bell" in origin, though belfries hold bells. "Bats in the belfry" is a jokey and slightly unkind phrase.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «belfry» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/belfry/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.