tambourine
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of tambourine
1570–80; earlier tamboryne < Middle Dutch tamborijn small drum < Middle French tambourin or Medieval Latin tamborīnum. See tambour, -ine 1
Explanation
The tambourine is a portable percussion instrument that you shake or strike against your leg or palm. If you want to be in a band with your friends but you don't know how to play an instrument, you could try playing the tambourine. Tambourines are round and look like shallow drums (sometimes with an actual drumhead) with several pairs of metal disks that jingle against each other when you shake or tap the tambourine. The earliest meaning of tambourine was "small drum," from the diminutive of the French tambour, "drum."
Vocabulary lists containing tambourine
Musical Instruments - Introductory
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Musical Instruments - Middle School
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Musical Instruments - High School
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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.
One month after Dylan released Mr Tambourine Man, the Byrds' version came out.
From BBC • Jan. 19, 2025
Crosby became a star in the mid-1960s with the seminal folk-rock group The Byrds, known for such hits as “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
From Seattle Times • Jan. 19, 2023
A bag of fan mail from 1966, Bruce Langhorn’s Turkish drum that inspired Dylan to write “Mr. Tambourine Man,” a postcard from Pete Seeger saying he never really minded when Dylan “went electric.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 11, 2022
In 2016, it purchased the original tambourine of Bruce Langhorne, who inspired Dylan’s song “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
From New York Times • May 5, 2022
We were escorted to Camp Tambourine by an M. P., where we spent the morning partaking of our rations.
From History of Ambulance Company Number 139 by Various
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.
