hurdy-gurdy

[ hur-dee-gur-dee, -gur- ]

noun,plural hur·dy-gur·dies.
  1. a barrel organ or similar musical instrument played by turning a crank.

  2. a lute- or guitar-shaped stringed musical instrument sounded by the revolution against the strings of a rosined wheel turned by a crank.

Origin of hurdy-gurdy

1
1740–50; variant of Scots hirdy-girdy uproar, influencedby hurly-burly

Other words from hurdy-gurdy

  • hurdy-gurdist, hur·dy-gur·dy·ist, noun

Words Nearby hurdy-gurdy

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use hurdy-gurdy in a sentence

  • Tonio will take to the hurdy-gurdy again; him an' Puck should win money too.

    Two Little Travellers | Frances Browne Arthur
  • The old Italian organ-grinder doing his best to please you with his wheezy hurdy-gurdy is not just an old organ-grinder.

  • Pisistratus, by the help of Latin comprehending that the Savoyard says that the mice are alive, and the hurdy-gurdy is not.

    The Caxtons, Complete | Edward Bulwer-Lytton
  • My uncle sold a watch, and I played on the hurdy-gurdy, by way of making myself popular.

    The Chainbearer | J. Fenimore Cooper
  • Among other things lying near her Dot now noticed a hurdy-gurdy, such as she had seen musicians carrying around the streets.

    Dot and Tot of Merryland | L. Frank Baum

British Dictionary definitions for hurdy-gurdy

hurdy-gurdy

/ (ˈhɜːdɪˈɡɜːdɪ) /


nounplural -dies
  1. any mechanical musical instrument, such as a barrel organ

  2. a medieval instrument shaped like a viol in which a rosined wheel rotated by a handle sounds the strings

Origin of hurdy-gurdy

1
C18: rhyming compound, probably of imitative origin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012