Some Americans might know the phrase saved by the bell" as the name of a 1980s TV sitcom about high school kids. But we use this idiom to often mean that someone is saved by something unplanned that gets them free from a tough situation. It might be a bell that saves them - one to end a class so that they don't have to give their speech, or a phone call that frees them - but it can it could also be the person who summons you from a meeting that you didn't want to attend.
The the idiom originataes in sports. In boxing, to be saved from misfortune or unpleasantness and a possible loss by the sound of the bell signalling the end of the round. Even a boxer who is knocked to the canvas and must regain his feet before a count of ten or lose the fight can be saved by that end-of-round bell if it is rung before the count is finished. That gives him until the start of the next round to recover and resume fighting.
ADHI dates this to the "mid-1900s" while the OED cites the first boxing use in 1932, and later figurative use in 1959.
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