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mirliton

[mir-li-ton; French meer-lee-tawn]
noun, plural mir·li·tons [mir-li-tonz; French meer-lee-tawn] /ˈmɪr lɪˌtɒnz; French mir liˈtɔ̃/.
  1. kazoo.
  2. chayote.

Origin of mirliton

1810–20; < French: literally, reed-pipe
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for mirliton

Historical Examples of mirliton

  • Beat the caviare to a cream and pound the peaches to a pulp; then add the sugar and millet and stir vigorously with a mirliton.

  • Bruant ran the Mirliton on the principle that the less easily pleasure is come by, the more it will be prized.

    Nights

    Elizabeth Robins Pennell

  • Trilby singing "Ben Bolt" into a mirliton was a thing to be remembered, whether one would or no!

    Trilby

    George Du Maurier

  • To give an account of the “Mirliton” is to tell the story of Bruant, the most popular ballad-writer in France to-day.

    The Ways of Men

    Eliot Gregory

  • Driven forth again I fly home, accompanied by the unnerving tones of the mirliton pipes.

    The Inferno

    August Strindberg

British Dictionary definitions for mirliton

mirliton

noun
  1. another name (chiefly US) for chayote

Word Origin for mirliton

C19: French, literally: reed pipe, of imitative origin
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