banjo
a musical instrument of the guitar family, having a circular body covered in front with tightly stretched parchment and played with the fingers or a plectrum.
Origin of banjo
1Other words from banjo
- ban·jo·ist, noun
Words Nearby banjo
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use banjo in a sentence
Alison Brown, she’s part of the band, so I always think about her banjo playing when I’m writing.
He soon traded an electric guitar — a Christmas gift that he barely played — for a banjo.
Bill Emerson, acclaimed banjoist who founded two premier bluegrass bands, dies at 83 | Terence McArdle | August 31, 2021 | Washington PostFascinated by drumming, he took apart a banjo when he was about 12 and used the head as a drum, playing brushes softly in a jazz style.
Charlie Watts, Rolling Stones drummer and band’s rhythmic mainstay, dies at 80 | Matt Schudel | August 24, 2021 | Washington PostI loaded my car with the essentials—guitar, banjo, running shoes, backpack, tent, sleeping bag, topo maps, cold-brew coffee apparatus—feeling like I was reentering adulthood.
banjo sauntered into their suburban split-level Alexandria home last month for a one-week trial and never left.
For some dogs (and humans), the pandemic adoption rush was mostly a waiting game | Hau Chu | June 25, 2021 | Washington Post
The twang we hear as emblematic of white country music is actually the direct descendant of black folk music banjo.
Well someone gave that kid a banjo and a Wi-Fi connection and told him to go to town.
Michael Cera’s ‘true that’ Review: So Melancholy, So Cool, So Damn Long | Amy Zimmerman | August 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn her down time, she plays the banjo in an all-girl band, Loose Gravel.
When he was 11, his father built him a banjo, at first fashioning the head out of groundhog hide.
Doc Watson, a Legendary Picker, Was Traditional Music’s Best Ambassador | Malcolm Jones | May 30, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTBefore Earl Scruggs, banjo players were not front men, but they were funny.
Earl Scruggs, Dead at 88, Pioneered a Banjo Style Imitated but Never Equaled | Malcolm Jones | March 29, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTA banjo lies on top of a piano—hired—and two of the boys take music lessons.
The Leaven in a Great City | Lillian William BettsHe seemed subdued, and hummed and strummed on his banjo, as if he couldn't get hold of what he wanted to let out.
The Belted Seas | Arthur ColtonBob took the banjo with the air of a martyr and tuned it skilfully.
Queensland Cousins | Eleanor Luisa HaverfieldEvery second house in the place was a saloon, and every saloon seemed to have a billiard-table and a banjo player.
Wandering Heath | Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-CouchThe chorus came roaring out and across the street; ceased; and the banjo slid into the next verse.
Wandering Heath | Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
British Dictionary definitions for banjo
/ (ˈbændʒəʊ) /
a stringed musical instrument with a long neck (usually fretted) and a circular drumlike body overlaid with parchment, plucked with the fingers or a plectrum
slang any banjo-shaped object, esp a frying pan
Australian and NZ slang a long-handled shovel with a wide blade
(modifier) banjo-shaped: a banjo clock
Origin of banjo
1Derived forms of banjo
- banjoist, noun
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
Cultural definitions for banjo
A stringed musical instrument, played by plucking (see strings). The banjo has a percussive sound and is much used in folk music and bluegrass music.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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