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sound as a bell
In excellent condition, as in Now that the brakes have been relined, the car is sound as a bell, or The surgery went well and now he's sound as a bell. This simile rests on the assumption that the bell in question is not cracked (which would make it useless). First recorded in 1565, it has survived numerous other similes (sound as a top or roach or dollar), probably owing to its pun on “sound.”
Example Sentences
"They're fools. You're as sound as a bell. You'll bury us all!"
And then there are some trees in the valleys under the mountains, sound as a bell, and bad right through.
"Divide, divide!" sank into reluctant silence as Audley Egerton rose to conclude the debate—the man of men to speak late at night, and to impatient benches: a man who would be heard; whom a Bedlam broke loose would not have roared down; with a voice clear and sound as a bell, and a form as firmly set on the ground as a church-tower.
"I am as sound as a bell," he vowed.
Toll, tōl, v.i. to sound, as a large bell, esp. with a measured sound, as a funeral bell.—v.t. to cause to sound, as a bell: to strike, or signal by striking.—n. the sound of a bell when tolling.—n.
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