knock bells

[curiouskat]

what is the phrase to do with knocking three bells out of someone - I assume it's to do with boxing?

[Quizmonster]

It's usually given as 'seven' bells. Click http://www.wordwizard.com/clubhouse/founddiscuss.asp?Num=1749 for an answer. It is based on nautical language...bells being the method of timing aboard ship.

[SimonMorton]

Originally "knocking harebells" - a quaint but EXTREMELY violent Morris Dancing procedure.

[Dusky]

It may have been contrived through mispronunciation but in London I used to hear of "knocking seven bales" out of someone, this being short for knocking "seven bales of muck" out of them (the cleaner version).  In less polite company you would hear "seven bales of s++t" and, more recently (though, thankfully, far less often), I've heard of knocking out "seven shades" of it.

Obviously these are likely to be loosely related to the versions given at Quizmonster's link - probably brought about through misquotation through time.

[Harrowarrow]

Seven bells would never be sounded in the navy, except by mistake. Two bells are rung for each hour [one for each half hour] on a four-hour watch; making eight bells in total. Working four-hour watches with an even number of watches [ the personnel who work or comprise a watch] would mean working the same hours throughout a voyage or port stay. Every other watch the personnel would work only two hours and the dogwatch of four bells would have been sounded.