First recorded in 1585–95; perhaps jocular; earlier called Jew's trump
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It sounds something like a Jew’s harp, but much louder.
From Slate ● Sep. 30, 2018
He carries a Jew's harp and a mouth-organ, and when not fingering one he is blowing music-hall tunes out of the other.
From The Red Horizon by MacGill, Patrick
He could sing comic songs, imitate hackney coachmen and fowls, play airs on his chin, and execute concertos on the Jew's harp.
From Charles Dickens and Music by Lightwood, James T.
Jeremy at one end of the circle sat strumming fitfully upon his latest instrument, violin or Jew's harp, his half-savage music breaking in upon Honorine's ceaseless chatter without prelude or apology.
From Deep Moat Grange by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
He can play any musical instrument from a sackbut to a Jew's harp, and speak any language from Czech to Choctaw.
From The Sixth Sense A Novel by McKenna, Stephen
He likes the Rolling Stones, he plays the jew’s-harp — it’s incredible.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2019
Ms. Arnold delivered the texts in a half-sung Sprechstimme manner over the drone of a lone jew’s-harp.
From New York Times ● Jun. 1, 2011
But the man who just likes to sing in the bathtub or twang a lick on the jew's-harp has never had a book to tell him where to go from there.
From Time Magazine Archive
The drone of a jew's-harp, which serves as a musical bridge in Up on Cripple Creek, is actually produced by the wah-wah pedal on Garth's clavinette.
From Time Magazine Archive
“Where’s the jew’s-harp, Jo?” cried Laurie, as soon as he was within speaking distance.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
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.
