Body & Soul4 mins ago
7 bells
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by chris1970. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.The unfortunate word is a recent addition by people who think a sentence is not complete without one.
To knock seven bells out of someone is an old naval expression for giving him a good beating. Time at sea is measured in bells. Each watch has times rung as one bell, two bells up to eight bells. It is thought that seven bells is used because to knock out the full eight bells would be to kill the man.
It is fair to say that some people think it refers to old boxing matches when a bell was rung at the end of each of seven rounds.
There are some more answers here:
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Sayings/Quest ion83673.html