Word.ws English Dictionary

save by the bell

save by the bell verb: in a boxing or wrestling match or similar competition, to ring the bell which concludes the round and thereby to prevent a competitor who has been knocked down from being counted out by the referee.

Verb

save by the bell (third-person singular simple present saves by the bell, present participle saving by the bell, simple past and past participle saved by the bell)

  1. (transitive) In a boxing or wrestling match or similar competition, to ring the bell which concludes the round and thereby to prevent a competitor who has been knocked down from being counted out by the referee.
    • With 35 seconds left in the fight, the Siberian Rocky landed a lethal right hook that staggered Bradley and forced him to take a knee following a few more hard blows, thus saving Bradley by the bell.2013 December 30, “Behind The Gloves 2013 Picks!”, in Behind the Gloves, archived from the original on 14 Mar 2016, retrieved 22 Jan 2014
  2. (broadly, idiomatic, transitive) To rescue or favorably assist (someone) by means of a timely interruption or the sudden termination of difficult circumstances.
    • The waitress brought the coffee about this time, saving me by the bell, as it were.1951 April, Charles Bell, "Sea Rescue," Motor Boating, p. 36 (Google preview)
    • Fortunately the appearance of the rash marks the beginning of a sudden end to the disease, establishes a diagnosis, saves you by the bell, satisfies the child's parents, and baby has had just one more kind of measles.1954, General Practitioner, volume 10, page 46

Forms of save by the bell

third-person singular presentsaves by the bell
present participlesaving by the bell
past participlesaved by the bell
pastsaved by the bell

Questions about save by the bell

What does save by the bell mean?
Save by the bell means in a boxing or wrestling match or similar competition, to ring the bell which concludes the round and thereby to prevent a competitor who has been knocked down from being counted out by the referee.
What part of speech is save by the bell?
Save by the bell is a verb.
What is the past tense of save by the bell?
The past tense of save by the bell is saved by the bell.

Words near save by the bell in the dictionary

  1. savate
  2. save
  3. save appearances
  4. save as
  5. save back
  6. save by the bell
  7. save down
  8. save face
  9. save file
  10. save files
  11. save for

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: save by the bell (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-save by the bell.ogg.

Cite this entry: “save by the bell.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/save_by_the_bell. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.