Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A toy musical instrument consisting of a hollow wooden pipe, about 4 inches long and half an inch in diameter, with a hole near one end and closed with parchment at the other, producing, when blown, a loud doleful sound. It was in use about 1856. Hence—2. An imaginary musical instrument feigned to be loudly sounded on occasions of special jubilation.
Etymologies
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Examples
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He was just getting warmed up to "balance to partners," when a frown came over the sultan's face and he looked cross at dad, and then the hewgag sounded, and the girls scattered out of a side door and dad wanted to follow, but I held him by the coat, and it was over.
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Dad and I had hired knee breeches and things of a masquerade ball store, and we didn't look half bad when the crowd of shieks and things formed a crescent around the sultan, who sat in a sort of barber's chair with an awning over it, and they sounded a hewgag or something, and about
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