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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.
  • STRAP-SHAPED
    Shaped like a strap; ligulate; as, a strap-shaped corolla.
  • AIDANCE
    Aid. Aidance 'gainst the enemy. Shak.
  • 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.

 

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