'Susan,' said Mr. Toots, `I am drawn towards the building. The words which cut me off from Miss Dombey for ever, will strike upon my ears like a knell you know, but upon my word and honour, I feel that I must hear them. Therefore,' said Mr. Toots, `will you accompany me to-morrow, to the sacred edifice?'

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Knell \Knell\, n. [OE. knel, cnul, AS. cnyll, fr. cnyllan to
sound a bell; cf. D. & G. knallen to clap, crack, G. & Sw.
knall a clap, crack, loud sound, Dan. knalde to clap, crack.
Cf. Knoll, n. & v.]
The stoke of a bell tolled at a funeral or at the death of a
person; a death signal; a passing bell; hence, figuratively,
a warning of, or a sound indicating, the passing away of
anything.

The dead man's knell Is there scarce asked for who.
--Shak.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. --Gray.
Knell \Knell\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Knelled; p. pr. & vb. n.
Knelling.] [OE. knellen, knillen, As. cnyllan. See Knell,
n.]
To sound as a knell; especially, to toll at a death or
funeral; hence, to sound as a warning or evil omen.

Not worth a blessing nor a bell to knell for thee.
--Beau. & Fl.

Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known, Of hopes
laid waste, knells in that word, ``alone''. --Ld.
Lytton.
Knell \Knell\, v. t.
To summon, as by a knell.

Each matin bell, the baron saith, Knells us back to a
world of death. --Coleridge.