Crossword clues for concertina
concertina
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Concertina \Con`cer*ti"na\, n. [From It. concerto a concert.] A small musical instrument on the principle of the accordion. It is a small elastic box, or bellows, having free reeds on the inside, and keys and handles on the outside of each of the two hexagonal heads.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1835, from concert + fem. ending -ina. Portable musical instrument invented 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone. Concertina wire attested by 1917, so called from similarity to the musical instrument.
Wiktionary
n. (context musical instruments English) A musical instrument, like the various accordions, that is a member of the free-reed family of musical instruments, typically having buttons on both ends. vb. 1 to become compressed into a shape reminiscent of a concertina 2 to be drawn closer and farther apart repeatedly, or up and down, as if situated on a working concertina's folds
WordNet
n. coiled barbed wire used as an obstacle
free-reed instrument played like an accordion by pushing its ends together to force air through the reeds
v. collapse like a concertina
Wikipedia
A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows, and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons, which travel perpendicularly to the bellows.
The concertina was developed in England and Germany, most likely independently. The English version was invented in 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, while Carl Friedrich Uhlig announced the German version in 1834. Various forms of concertina are used for classical music, for the traditional musics of Ireland, England, and South Africa, and for tango and polka music.
"Concertina" is a song written and performed by American singer/songwriter Tori Amos, released as the fourth and last single from her 1999 album To Venus and Back. The commercial CD single was released in February 2000.
Usage examples of "concertina".
The little barkeeper paid no attention to their demands until he had satisfied the thirst of the old concertina player who, presently, could be seen drawing aside the bear-pelt curtain and passing through the small, square opening of the partition which separated the Polka Saloon from its dance-hall.
I peer at these people as they scurry in a landscape which seems concertinaed by giant hands, the women cowled in grubby shawls, the men clouded with beerhouse reek, the children quick and pale and subtly dangerous, wondering if this is when the change into true poverty begins.
There were too many with too much persistence to stop completely, and here and there the new sappers shoved their long pipelike Bangalore torpedoes along the ground under the concertina wire and pulled the fuse handles.
The trains would fold into each other, would concertina, would heap into killing chaos.
Then if you had to walk around the base with all this internal concertina, with all these unexploded pieces of ordnance, trucks, jeeps, and wrecks of airplanes, walls of sandbags and old tent pegs that were still poking out, you were obviously going to trip somewhere.
Glancing at the dirt path, Ryan saw blue shirts walking the wooden tripods across the road, trailing glittering coils of the concertina wire to seal off the exit.
Jim was the champion concertina player and bullock driver in the district.
The West Indian, who had swiftly hidden the concertina behind his back when the police appeared, said he was going home and they exchanged genial good-nights.
A blue Nissan was a complete concertina, and something dead and bloody was hanging through the popped-out windshield.
If you are good at playing the concertina you could probably go into the nearest public bar and get yourself an appreciative audience within five minutes.
Esmeralda slammed the concertina gates of the elevator and glared at Thurston through the bars.
Pressing the guinea-pig between her hands, as it might be a concertina, little Ann jigged it gently above the pointers, who, wrinkling horribly their long noses, gazed upwards, fascinated.
The music of a concertina rose and fell, like the sighing of some disillusioned spirit.
The docks were comparatively animated, with the passage of drays, the shouting and cursing of porters, the gay music of concertinas from aboard the barge.
A two-metre-diameter airlock tube had concertinaed out from the bay wall, just below the control centre, giving the maintenance team access to the life-support capsules buried at the core of the ship.