belfry
belfry Lexical Profile
belfry Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A bell tower or steeple, either attached to a church or civic building or standing as a separate structure.
"The bronze bells in the church belfry chimed across the valley every Sunday morning."
The upper room or enclosed wooden framework within a tower in which bells are hung.
"The restoration crew climbed the narrow wooden stairs to inspect the timber beams inside the belfry."
A medieval movable wooden siege tower used to shelter attackers approaching a fortified wall.
"Medieval engineers rolled the tall wooden belfry up to the castle ramparts during the siege."
Word Origin & Etymology
From Middle English 'berfrey' (watchtower or movable siege tower), borrowed from Old French 'berfroi', of Germanic origin meaning 'peace-protector'. The word originally had no etymological connection to 'bell', which was later introduced through folk etymology because bells were commonly hung in high towers.