ring out the Old Year

It was a minute to midnight when Joan and John reached her parents' house as the bells were beginning to ring out the old year.

A dragon boat race is held on the Lancang River to ring out the old year in the afternoon.

Consider toshi wasure, what they call the custom of ringing out the old year and ringing in the new.

The Islanders, who seem unable to exert much control over their fortunes, rang out the old year by sabotaging their seven-game undefeated streak with a pair of losses.

Church bells ringing out the old year from the tower at Over Stowey probably formed a distant accompaniment to Coleridge's first night in the Lime Street cottage.

If, on the other hand, you would like to ring out the old year on a more pagan note, the blues-influenced singer-songwriter Leon Russell and the folk-rock Rod McDonald Band will provide the music.

So it seems oddly fitting that Mr. Rauschenberg should ring out the old year, and a bit of SoHo history, in this big, vaulting space, which is not likely to be a gallery in its next incarnation.

Too quiet, especially for the townspeople and tourists who lined up along the walls inside what is Crawford's only diner for a glimpse of the town's most famous resident, who usually comes for a cheeseburger to ring out the old year.

Ringing out the old year on Times Square is an American rite that goes back almost a century, and although pulling it off these days is complicated by strobe lights and TV, the idea remains pristine in its simplicity.