nail violin
- 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.
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Origin of nail violin
First recorded in 1880–85
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for nail violin
Historical Examples
Two specimens of the nail-violin, one of which has sympathetic strings of thin brass-wire running over the sound-board.
Musical Myths and Facts, Volume I (of 2)Carl Engel