double bass
the largest instrument of the violin family, having three or, usually, four strings, rested vertically on the floor when played.
Origin of double bass
1- Also called bass fiddle, bass viol, contrabass, string bass.
Other words from double bass
- double bassist, noun
Words Nearby double bass
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use double bass in a sentence
If a stellar-mass black hole is a violin, an IMBH is a double bass.
Mr. Betts, of London, had one for which he refused the enormous sum of £500, and Dragonetti also refused £800 for a double bass.
Violins and Violin Makers | Joseph PearceIn his younger days he also played the double-bass and played at the provincial Musical Festivals of 1871 and 1874.
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building | George Laing MillerAnd she thinks she is serious all the time with her great boots and her great double-bass and her French horns.
Dodo's Daughter | E. F. BensonEdith leaned over the terrace wall, and took the double-bass bow out of the tall clump of sweet peas.
Dodo's Daughter | E. F. Benson
Don't mind the scales and the double-bass, dear Dr. Cardew; it is only Mrs. Arbuthnot, of whom you have heard.
Dodo's Daughter | E. F. Benson
British Dictionary definitions for double bass
/ (beɪs) /
Also called (US): bass viol a stringed instrument, the largest and lowest member of the violin family. Range: almost three octaves upwards from E in the space between the fourth and fifth leger lines below the bass staff. It is normally bowed in classical music, but it is very common in a jazz or dance band, where it is practically always played pizzicato: Informal name: bass fiddle
of or relating to an instrument whose pitch lies below that regarded as the bass; contrabass
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 double bass
Another name for the bass viol.
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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