music box

See more synonyms for music box on Thesaurus.com

noun

a box or case containing an apparatus for producing music mechanically, as by means of a comblike steel plate with tuned teeth sounded by small pegs or pins in the surface of a revolving cylinder or disk.

Also especially British, musical box.

Origin of music box

First recorded in 1765–75

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for music box

jukebox, orchestrina, orchestrion

Examples from the Web for music box

Contemporary Examples of music box

“I made a story in my mind where the captain of the toy solders is in love with the music-box ballerina,” she says.
Erin Fetherston's Fairytales
Katharine Zarrella
July 1, 2009

Historical Examples of music box

Gertie looked at Archy and then at the music-box, and Archy looked at the music-box and then at Gertie.
Harper's Young People, August 17, 1880
Various
The music-box has registered Its phrases garbled and reviled. '
Enamels and Cameos and other Poems
Thophile Gautier
What do you want to do with the fiddle—think it's a music-box?
Other Main-Travelled Roads
Hamlin Garland
It was a music-box, you know, and the Turkish lady played a tune while she smoked.
O Pioneers!
Willa Cather
He touched a button and a music-box in the dragon's head began to play a tune.
The Lost Princess of Oz
L. Frank Baum

British Dictionary definitions for music box

music box

musical box

noun

a mechanical instrument that plays tunes by means of pins on a revolving cylinder striking the tuned teeth of a comblike metal plate, contained in a box

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