Definition of "joy-bells" []

• Bells rung on a festive occasion.

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "You could hear the joy-bells ringing in the capital, and the guns which the citizens were firing off in honor of their Majesties."
• "A suitable, even an ideal, companion for a funeral, Ferris seemed out of harmony when the joy-bells were ringing."
• "Outside in the night they continued to sound on, swelling and fainting; and the listener heard in his memory, as it were their harmonies, joy-bells clashing in a northern city, and the acclamations of a multitude, the cries of battle, the gross voices of cannon, the stridor of an animated life."