organ grinder
2
8.3
- noun
- /ˈɔrɡən ˈɡraɪndər/
- Archaic
:
organillero
- And they would sit to lunch and gossip in the sleepy shade of the market's trees, a drift of carnival music turned from the blind organ grinder, to whom she read on Fridays, and whose swift little squirrel monkey tumbled through the square.
- the organ grinder's monkey
Examples
-
And as the monkey clapped, the organ grinder opened his onion-white eyes.
Fiction book (1998) -
I want the organ grinder, not the monkey.
-
Now all we need is an organ grinder.
-
In it, there was an organ grinder.
-
Then, in the distance, they heard the voice of the organ grinder up the street.
Fiction book (1998) -
We'll speak to the organ grinder, not the monkeys.
-
I'm not going to become an organ grinder, okay?
-
That's music for an organ grinder with a monkey.
-
And when the man's voice had passed the door, the old woman stood and looked out on the street to see the organ grinder, blind and bareheaded, stumble like a drunk along the gutter in the cool moonlight.
Fiction book (1998) -
On a sunny afternoon, the children gathered around the organ grinder as he played cheerful tunes from his barrel organ.
Synonyms
9
3.7
A person who plays the organ in church or concerts
Surface Forms
Morphology
organ + grinder
The meaning is partially compositional: 'organ' clearly names the instrument and 'grinder' (one who grinds/operates) signals an agent, so a learner could infer it refers to a person associated with an organ. However, the specific historical sense 'street performer who plays a barrel organ' and the extended metaphorical meaning require cultural/idiomatic knowledge about barrel organs and their operators, so the sense is not fully predictable from the parts alone.
Etymology
Organ grinder comes from street shows where a person called the grinder turned the handle of a small organ while a little monkey collected coins and did tricks. So, organ grinder now means a street musician and, by image, the 'person in charge' rather than the 'monkey', and it can also mean someone who performs for small pay.