Saved by the bell
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
Rescued at the last possible moment from defeat, danger, embarrassment, an unwanted answer, or another difficult situation. Current and informal. In general use no literal bell is required; any timely interruption or outside intervention can supply the rescue. Boxing rules about whether a bell stops a knockdown count vary, but that does not alter the historical metaphor. Regional use: English-language boxing slang; now used worldwide.
Origin
The expression first had a literal boxing sense: the bell ending a round could interrupt a boxer's punishment and provide a respite before defeat. A Seattle Post-Intelligencer report used the phrase in that setting in January 1891, followed by many other ring reports. The evidence then shows a figurative baseball use in 1928 and a non-sports use in 1932, documenting its expansion into a general last-moment rescue. Nineteenth-century safety coffins fitted with signalling bells really were patented, but no early evidence connects them to this idiom or shows the phrase used of premature burial before the boxing record. The coffin-bell story is therefore a folk etymology.
Research Sources
Variants
- Be saved by the bell
- Was saved by the bell
Usage Examples
- Reyes staggered into the ropes, but the round ended and he was saved by the bell.
- Just as the committee prepared to cancel the exhibition, a sponsor called; the curators were saved by the bell.
- The lunch alarm rang before the teacher could ask for my answer: saved by the bell.