Word Meanings - CASTANETS - Book Publishers vocabulary database

Two small, concave shells of ivory or hard wood, shaped like spoons, fastened to the thumb, and beaten together with the middle finger; -- used by the Spaniards and Moors as an accompaniment to their dance and guitars. Note: The singular, castanet,

Additional info about word: CASTANETS

Two small, concave shells of ivory or hard wood, shaped like spoons, fastened to the thumb, and beaten together with the middle finger; -- used by the Spaniards and Moors as an accompaniment to their dance and guitars. Note: The singular, castanet, is used of one of the pair, or, sometimes, of the pair forming the instrument. The dancer, holding a castanet in each hand, rattles then to the motion of his feet. Moore . (more info) castanea a chestnut. So named from the resemblance to two chestnuts, or because chestnuts were first used for castanets.

Related words: (words related to CASTANETS)

• DANCER
  One who dances or who practices dancing. The merry dancers, beams of the northern lights when they rise and fall alternately without any considerable change of length. See Aurora borealis, under Aurora.
• MIDDLE
  1. Equally distant from the extreme either of a number of things or of one thing; mean; medial; as, the middle house in a row; a middle rank or station in life; flowers of middle summer; men of middle age. 2. Intermediate; intervening.
• MOORSTONE
  A species of English granite, used as a building stone.
• CONCAVED
  Bowed in the form of an arch; -- called also arched.
• SHAPE
  is from the strong verb, AS. scieppan, scyppan, sceppan, p. p. 1. To form or create; especially, to mold or make into a particular form; to give proper form or figure to. I was shapen in iniquity. Ps. li. 5. Grace shaped her limbs, and
• CONCAVE
  1. Hollow and curved or rounded; vaulted; -- said of the interior of a curved surface or line, as of the curve of the of the inner surface of an eggshell, in opposition to convex; as, a concave mirror; the concave arch of the sky. 2. Hollow; void
• THUMBLESS
  Without a thumb. Darwin.
• SMALLISH
  Somewhat small. G. W. Cable.
• THUMBKIN
  An instrument of torture for compressing the thumb; a thumbscrew.
• FASTENER
  One who, or that which, makes fast or firm.
• SINGULAR
  Existing by itself; single; individual. The idea which represents one . . . determinate thing, is called a singular idea, whether simple, complex, or compound. I. Watts. (more info) 1. Separate or apart from others; single; distinct. Bacon. And
• MIDDLE-GROUND
  That part of a picture between the foreground and the background.
• MIDDLE-EARTH
  The world, considered as lying between heaven and hell. Shak.
• DANCERESS
  A female dancer. Wyclif.
• MIDDLEMAN
  The man who occupies a central position in a file of soldiers. (more info) 1. An agent between two parties; a broker; a go-between; any dealer between the producer and the consumer; in Ireland, one who takes land of the proprietors in large tracts,
• FINGERED
  Having leaflets like fingers; digitate. (more info) 1. Having fingers.
• SMALLCLOTHES
  A man's garment for the hips and thighs; breeches. See Breeches.
• SHAPER
  1. One who shapes; as, the shaper of one's fortunes. The secret of those old shapers died with them. Lowell. 2. That which shapes; a machine for giving a particular form or outline to an object. Specifically; A kind of planer in which the tool,
• MIDDLER
  One of a middle or intermediate class in some schools and seminaries.
• SMALLPOX
  A contagious, constitutional, febrile disease characterized by a peculiar eruption; variola. The cutaneous eruption is at first a collection of papules which become vesicles (first flat, subsequently umbilicated) and then pustules, and finally thick
• MISHAPPEN
  To happen ill or unluckily. Spenser.
• ASCENDANCY; ASCENDANCE
  See ASCENDENCY
• SPINDLE-SHAPED
  Thickest in the middle, and tapering to both ends; fusiform; -- applied chiefly to roots. (more info) 1. Having the shape of a spindle.
• COUNTRY-DANCE
  See MACUALAY
• DIAMOND-SHAPED
  Shaped like a diamond or rhombus.
• AIDANCE
  Aid. Aidance 'gainst the enemy. Shak.
• STRAP-SHAPED
  Shaped like a strap; ligulate; as, a strap-shaped corolla.
• WINTER-BEATEN
  Beaten or harassed by the severe weather of winter. Spenser.
• DISMALLY
  In a dismal manner; gloomily; sorrowfully; uncomfortably.
• TENDANCE
  1. The act of attending or waiting; attendance. Spenser. The breath Of her sweet tendance hovering over him. Tennyson. 2. Persons in attendance; attendants. Shak.
• AWL-SHAPED
  Subulate. See Subulate. Gray. (more info) 1. Shaped like an awl.