juke joint
4
9.5
- noun
- /ˈdʒuːk dʒɔɪnt/
- Informal
:
bar
- Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, and Howlin' Wolf often played Clarksdale's street corners, juke joints, and surrounding plantations.
Examples
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A barmaid at a juke joint near the base.
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Before Elmo picked up Cathleen, he stopped by J.C. Himes Place, a juke joint where young black men hung out.
Fiction book (1993) -
Let's blow this juke joint.
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And drinking, which is all going on down at that juke joint where she sings.
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Here and there, they stop in at juke joints, listen to music, and dance.
Fiction book (1997) -
Yeah, we gon' patch it up, make it into a juke joint.
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I find the perfect groove in a juke joint or club: friends and strangers dance, people laugh, and buy each other drinks.
Academic text (2018) -
Now closed, Smitty's Red Top Lounge was for years one of Clarksdale's most famous juke joints.
Academic text (2018) -
The bluesmen who drew the most attention during the day were hired to play the Saturday night parties held at rural juke joints throughout the countryside.
Academic text (2018) -
On Saturday nights, the local crowd gathers at the juke joint to eat, drink, and dance to lively music.
Synonyms
314
5.1
An informal place like a bar or club
7
9.9
A small roadside bar where people eat, drink, and dance to a jukebox
1
9.8
A cheap bar or dance hall where people dance to country music
A small informal place where people eat, drink, and dance to jukebox music
A small lively place in the southern United States where people eat, drink, and dance to music
A small roadside bar in the southern United States with music and dancing
A small place in the southern United States where people eat, drink, and dance to jukebox music
How Lively
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: 'juke' denotes a small bar with a jukebox/dancing and 'joint' means an informal bar or club, so together they straightforwardly describe that specific kind of establishment. Although 'juke' is regionally specific and may be unfamiliar to learners, if a B1 learner knows both constituent meanings the overall sense is predictable and not idiomatic.
Etymology
Juke joint comes from an old African word 'jook' or 'juke' that meant a lively, sometimes noisy place. A joint was a simple room or bar, so a juke joint became a small, informal spot where people 'eat', 'drink', and 'dance' to music.