ghetto blaster
1
7.7
- noun
- /ˈɡɛtoʊ ˈblæstər/
- Archaic
:
ghetto blaster
- Pedestrians with radios and ghetto blasters look down in shock as a rumba begins playing from every speaker in town.
- play your ghetto blaster
Examples
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During the street festival, music blared from a ghetto blaster as people danced in the sun.
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Do you listen to a ghetto blaster?
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Stalls have been set up; music plays from a ghetto blaster at one end.
Fiction book (1994) -
A ghetto blaster sat on the log beside him, apparently tuned to KNDN.
Fiction book (1993) -
The street corners were flooded by the sounds coming from gigantic "ghetto blasters," recent arrivals to Colombia, as enthusiasts practiced their gymnastic steps.
Academic text (1991) -
At the park, a group of friends gathered around a ghetto blaster to enjoy their favorite songs.
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He carried his ghetto blaster on his shoulder, filling the beach with loud hip-hop beats.
Synonyms
19
3.1
A portable music system with speakers that plays music loudly
4
3.5
A portable music player with speakers used to play loud music in public places
A small loud speaker you carry to play music outdoors
How Loud
Surface Forms
Morphology
ghetto + blaster
The compound pairs 'ghetto' (an urban area / street context) with 'blaster' (something that 'blasts'), so a learner who knows the parts can plausibly infer a device that 'blasts' loud music associated with street/urban use. However, 'blaster' is vague here and the term is slang with sociocultural connotations referring specifically to a boombox/portable stereo, so the exact referent is not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Ghetto blaster comes from a simple image: big, portable stereos were often used in poor city areas and people would 'blast' very loud music from them. So the words ghetto and blaster were put together to name this kind of stereo, and today it means 'a large, portable stereo used to play loud music in public'.