orchestrion

American  

[awr-kes-tree-uhn] / ɔrˈkɛs tri ən /

noun

1. a mechanical musical instrument, resembling a barrel organ but more elaborate, for producing the effect of an orchestra.

---

Etymology

Origin of orchestrion

1830–40; orchestr(a) + -ion, as in accordion

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

orchestrion

See, for instance, the music room, where a brass-looking, water-spewing elephant trunk fuels the instruments, including an ornate orchestrion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 16, 2023

In the French room there was a large orchestrion which had been built in Geneva for Madame Patti.

From London Days A Book of Reminiscences by Arthur Warren

In the silence and vacuity which follow the impromptu on his orchestrion, the composer yearns, broods, aspires.

From Robert Browning by Edward Dowden

Before the orchestrion that accompanied the merry-go-round had accomplished the first strain of Strauss's waltz I should have been feebly calling for the steward.

From In Troubadour-Land A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

I never asked what Mr. Gluckstein thought of the orchestrion.

From On the Stairs by Henry Blake Fuller