barrel organ
- noun
- /ˈbærəl ˈɔrɡən/
- Archaic
:
órgano de barril
- "I love to hear singing to a barrel-organ on a cold, dark, and damp autumn evening (it must be damp), when the faces of all the passersby look pale-green and sickly.
Examples
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A papier-mache musical box in the shape of a barrel organ.
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From near the door came the sound of a barrel organ and the cracked childish voice of a seven-year-old singing "The Little Hut."
Fiction book (1991) -
'There was a barrel organ at the corner by Harris's.
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An actor dressed as a blind man came on with a barrel organ and began singing "The Night We Dropped the Big One on Biggin Hill."
Fiction book (1992) -
It fades from the mind so quickly, like a tune on the barrel-organ.
Fiction book (1994) -
A barrel-organ was playing up the street." (Woolf 1965, 91).
Academic text (2017) -
The street performer played cheerful tunes on a barrel organ, attracting a crowd of curious onlookers.
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As the children danced, the barrel organ played lively music, filling the square with joy.
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For the festival, a barrel organ filled the air with melodies, bringing a nostalgic atmosphere to the celebration.
Synonyms
23
3.1
A small box that plays a tune when you wind it
A small music machine you turn by hand to play tunes from a cylinder with pegs
A small portable instrument that plays music when you turn a handle
A small box that plays a tune when you wind it
How Loud
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is compositionally transparent: a B1 learner who knows 'barrel' (a hollow cylinder) and 'organ' (a musical instrument) can infer this refers to an organ operated by a barrel mechanism that triggers notes. The meaning follows straightforward noun + noun modification and is not idiomatic, so learners can derive the sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
Barrel organ comes from the wooden barrel inside the instrument and the word organ for a musical player. When someone turns the barrel with a handle, small pegs on it lift the pipes and the machine 'plays music', so the name explains how the instrument works and why it means that mechanical music player today.