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nail violin

American

noun

a musical instrument consisting of a wooden cylinder or half cylinder with a number of nails or U -shaped metal pins inserted into its surface, played with one or two fiddle bows.

Etymology

Origin of nail violin

First recorded in 1880–85

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.