phrase

• Attractive additional features or trimmings.

  More example sentences

  • ‘an advocate of more bells and whistles on the income tax code’
  • ‘It has enough bells and whistles to satiate special effects fans, but not too many to cheapen the overall film.’
  • ‘If you can live without the latest bells and whistles, then used equipment may be for you.’
  • ‘They want an integrated system with all the bells and whistles of high-end storage as standard features.’
  • ‘The whole thing fizzes with furious energy and is more satisfying than plenty of albums with more technical bells and whistles.’
  • ‘Now most high-end computers cost only two thousand dollars, and these computers have all the bells and whistles.’
  • ‘You'd think we'd have learnt how all the bells and whistles on our phones worked after that wouldn't you?’
  • ‘It's got so many bells and whistles, it's taking time for me to get used to using it.’
  • ‘I'm very suspicious of websites that confront you with bells and whistles and all manner of cunning design.’
  • ‘A young friend of mine got his first autofocus camera the other day - a fairly swish Canon, with quite a few of the bells and whistles.’
  • ‘Cut out all the bells and whistles and stick to simple architecture.’

  Origin

  An allusion to the various bells and whistles of old fairground organs.