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  • organ grinder
    organ grinder
    noun
    an itinerant street musician who earns a living by playing a hand organ or hurdy-gurdy.
  • organ-grinder
    organ-grinder
    noun
    a street musician playing a hand organ for money

organ grinder

American  

noun

  1. an itinerant street musician who earns a living by playing a hand organ or hurdy-gurdy.

organ-grinder British  

noun

  1. a street musician playing a hand organ for money

"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

Etymology

Origin of organ grinder

First recorded in 1800–10

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.