barrelhouse
Americannoun
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barrelhouses
plural
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a cheap saloon, especially one in New Orleans in the early part of the 20th century: so called from the racks of liquor barrels originally placed along the walls.
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a vigorous style of jazz originating in the barrelhouses of New Orleans in the early part of the 20th century.
noun
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a cheap and disreputable drinking establishment
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a vigorous and unpolished style of jazz for piano, originating in the barrelhouses of New Orleans
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( as modifier )
barrelhouse blues
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Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of barrelhouse
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“We’re always busy, baby, not this time,” Olsen sings over rippling barrelhouse piano in “Big Time,” “Lay in the tall grass, talking with your eyes.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2022
Taking its title from a saying attributed to Martin Luther, the concerto deconstructs and reassembles impulses from funk, gospel and barrelhouse.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 27, 2021
He plays me the first few bars of something caught between ragtime and barrelhouse, full of stride piano left-hand chords, his long fingers flicking this way and that.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 30, 2018
Two singing pianists who loom large in the contemporary lore of New Orleans music, Mr. Butler and Dr. John both descend from the musical parentage of Professor Longhair, the famous barrelhouse piano innovator.
From New York Times ● Jun. 8, 2017
A barrelhouse blues was being shouted over the stamping of feet on a wooden floor.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
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When Pam Butler moved to Lincoln County 30 years ago, there were only two barrelhouses nearby, and she had “no issues.”
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 7, 2023
The distilleries where the liquor is manufactured and barrelhouses where it is aged have complemented the rural character of their neighborhoods, while providing jobs and the pride of a successful homegrown industry.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 7, 2023
Ms. Long said her corner of Lincoln County “is going to be black as coal” unless Jack Daniel’s installs air filters in the barrelhouses, one of which sits about 250 yards from her property.
From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2023
Mr Holleman said he anticipates asking the court to order Brown-Forman to stop using six recently-built warehouses, which are commonly known as barrelhouses, that are also near Mrs Long's property.
From BBC ● Mar. 1, 2023
He was, in the words of the French critic Jacques Périn, "a robust, straightforward musician, a disciple of all the solid pianists schooled in the rough training-grounds of the barrelhouses".
From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2011
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.