Bel"lows (?), n. sing. & pl. [OE. bely, below, belly, bellows, AS. baelg, baelig, bag, bellows, belly. Bellows is prop. a pl. and the orig. sense is bag. See Belly.]
An instrument, utensil, or machine, which, by alternate expansion and contraction, or by rise and fall of the top, draws in air through a valve and expels it through a tube for various purposes, as blowing fires, ventilating mines, or filling the pipes of an organ with wind.
Bellows camera, in photography, a form of camera, which can be drawn out like an accordion or bellows. -- Hydrostatic bellows. See Hydrostatic. -- A pair of bellows, the ordinary household instrument for blowing fires, consisting of two nearly heart-shaped boards with handles, connected by leather, and having a valve and tube.
© Webster 1913.