bell ringer

• bellringer, bell-ringer

Inherited from Middle English belringer, belle ringer, bellryngar, belryngere, equivalent to bell +‎ ringer.

bell ringer (plural bell ringers)

1. A person, especially one of a group, who rings bells.

   Synonyms: bellist, ringer

2. (derogatory) A door-to-door salesman.
3. (education) An assignment, done regularly at the beginning of a class, and intended as a warm-up before other classroom activities.
4. (anatomy, education) A type of anatomy exam in which students must answer questions at a series of stations and move on to the next station when a bell is rung.
   • 2018 May 24, “Meet today's Faculty of Health Sciences valedictorian”, in McMaster Daily News‎^[1], archived from the original on 2023-04-03:

     In Health Sciences, Dr. Ball was always available to us in the anatomy lab giving us tips and tricks for bell ringers. You can tell he genuinely cares about teaching, because why else would he wear a uterus costume!