Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A stringed instrument played by turning a rosined wheel with a crank and depressing keys connected to tangents on the strings.
- noun An instrument, such as a barrel organ, played by turning a crank.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In a five-stringed instrument the lowest open string is called the bourdon, that next above the mouche, and the highest the trompette, and the melody strings are called
chanterelles . - noun A musical instrument shaped somewhat like a lute, having four or more strings, two of which are tuned a fifth apart for the production of a drone-bass, and the other two in unison, but so arranged that they can be shortened by pressing finger-keys connected with an apparatus of tangents not unlike that of the clavichord.
- noun In California, a wheel moved by a jet of water issuing under pressure from a conical nozle, and striking open buckets on the circumference of the wheel; an impact-wheel.
- noun A crank or windlass used by halibut-fishermen for hauling trawls in deep water where the strain is very heavy.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A stringled instrument, lutelike in shape, in which the sound is produced by the friction of a wheel turned by a crank at the end, instead of by a bow, two of the strings being tuned as drones, while two or more, tuned in unison, are modulated by keys.
- noun In California, a water wheel with radial buckets, driven by the impact of a jet.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective humorous Sounding like the
Swedish language. - noun music A medieval stringed
instrument which has a droning sound. One hand turns a handle connected to a wheel which vibrates the strings, while the other hand plays akeyboard to alter thepitch . - noun music A
barrel organ . - noun US, California A
water wheel withradial buckets , driven by theimpact of ajet .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a musical instrument that makes music by rotation of a cylinder studded with pegs
- noun a musical instrument that makes music by rotation of a cylinder studded with pegs
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Dutch artists excelled at portraying these sorts of characters - hurdy-gurdy players, smokers, drinkers, prostitutes.
At National Gallery, two paintings by one Dutch master add up to a sublime exhibition 2011
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I remember the bright lights and swirling, stomach-churning rides, the sounds of the hurdy-gurdy barrel organ competing with pop music blaring out from the rides, showmen shouting their wares, the roar of motorbikes on the wall of death, and the wail of the ghost train.
Country diary: East Yorkshire Rosemary Roach 2010
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It should be mentioned that "Der Leiermann," the last song of the cycle, is actually about a hurdy-gurdy player, and was the starting off point for the duo's interest in re-interpeting the entire work.
Michal Shapiro: Hurdy-Gurdy in the 21st Century Michal Shapiro 2011
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It should be mentioned that "Der Leiermann," the last song of the cycle, is actually about a hurdy-gurdy player, and was the starting off point for the duo's interest in re-interpeting the entire work.
Michal Shapiro: Hurdy-Gurdy in the 21st Century Michal Shapiro 2011
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It's the only city where some young guy who's found your music online will invite you to play the hurdy-gurdy in a warehouse.
Stevie Wishart Finds Inspiration on a Motorbike Frances Robinson 2011
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Will you please turn off your hurdy-gurdy for five minutes?
Global Voices in English » Georgia, Russia: Cyber Attacks on Blogger ‘Cyxymu’ 2009
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They have a ridiculously tall singer named Win and some members play uber-quirky, ironic instruments like the glockenspiel and the xylophone and even the hurdy-gurdy -- which I had to look up to see what it was -- and many appear to wear thrift-store clothes and sport appropriate indie-approved beards, making them look gangly and sexy and silly, all at once ....
Mark Morford: Forgive Me, I Do Not Like The Arcade Fire Mark Morford 2010
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The plot of Carl Zeller's "Der Obersteiger" ( "The Foreman") is utterly incoherent; and the title character, whose name is Martin (tenor Bernhard Berchtold), is so unsympathetic that it scarcely matters when he goes from rabble-rouser to impoverished band director to a hurdy-gurdy man who has lost everything.
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Then there's a hurdy-gurdy and some piano, and there's a bouzouki, and then you hear an electric guitar as well.
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Then there's a hurdy-gurdy and some piano, and there's a bouzouki, and then you hear an electric guitar as well.
polymorph commented on the word hurdy-gurdy
I saw Nigel Eaton play a hurdy-gurdy at a Page and Plant show in the 90s. The hurdy-gurdy.com FAQ has more details about those performances and also a note on etymology.
April 13, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hurdy-gurdy
There's no hyphen in hurdy gurdy! :-P
April 13, 2007
patiomensch commented on the word hurdy-gurdy
I think both forms are acceptable.
April 13, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hurdy-gurdy
They certainly are. I'm just being a jerk. ;-)
April 13, 2007
bilby commented on the word hurdy-gurdy
"Love makes people equal. For a moment he and she were completely on the same level.
'To whom shall I pray?' he asked. 'Who says there's someone out there? Who says the universe isn't just one big hurdy-gurdy?'
'Maybe it's not necessary to pray to anyone. The early desert mothers said that God is without form, colour, or content. Perhaps prayer isn't a matter of praying to anyone. Perhaps it's an active way of giving up. Maybe that's precisely what you need: to give up, without going under.'"
- 'The Quiet Girl', Peter Høeg.
March 18, 2008
reesetee commented on the word hurdy-gurdy
A lute- or guitar-shaped stringed musical instrument sounded by the revolution against the strings of a rosined wheel turned by a crank.
March 20, 2008
dailyword commented on the word hurdy-gurdy
A prostitute played this for House when he was acting out after his break up with Cuddy.
July 2, 2012