Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The bone at the center of a ham
  • noun US slang A ham; an eager or inferior performer
  • noun music, dance A certain type of dance that involves making noise with the body, especially by slapping parts of the body with one's hands
  • noun bowling, informal Four consecutive strikes.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

ham +‎ bone

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Examples

  • ULABY: Scholars trace this pattern to church tambourines, West African drumming, and a hand-patting rhythm called hambone that goes back to slavery.

    Rock Pioneer Bo Diddley Dies at 79 2008

  • A hambone is the perfect foundation for a great soup.

    The Earth Times Online Newspaper 2009

  • In these a hambone was a performer in blackface overacting dialect routines (as in the song, "The Ham-Fat Man").

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XIII No 3 1986

  • Diddley, whose signature "hambone" beat provided one of the original and most enduring rhythms in rock, built the foundations from which many musicians - including the British invasion bands of the 1960s - have built.

    R.I.P. Bo Diddley Divers 2008

  • The children's game "hambone" used a similar rhythm.

    The Fall online - latest Fall News 2008

  • 'hambone' goes to iraq and makes farrah reyna cry the zionist occupation of iraq is the war in iraq franklin graham is full of crap ralph nader talks about israel's attack upon the uss liberty agtr-5 remember the uss liberty agtr-5 attack

    we saw that... 2008

  • What I'm hoping for is that people will want to have a conversation with me and that you know, my company did a lot of work with, like hambone, but we're primarily a white dance company.

    Michele Norris Reveals 'The Grace Of Silence' 2010

  • The members are mostly Caucasian, and so what does it mean to do hambone?

    Michele Norris Reveals 'The Grace Of Silence' 2010

  • Before his Patagonia days traveler extraordinaire Bruce Chatwin studied archeology at the university here, which counts among its rectors the best Scrooge in the movies, hambone extraordinaire Alastair Sim.

    Barry Yourgrau: A Remembrance In Edinburgh Barry Yourgrau 2012

  • Log in to Reply hambone (UID#16674) on October 29th, 2009 at 1: 37 pm

    lcac in sand | My[confined]Space 2009

Comments

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  • Form of body percussion music where legs, thighs, and upper body are rhythmically slapped, accompanied by the rhytmic uttering of "he's" and "haws".

    September 4, 2009