bourdon
Americannoun
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the drone pipe of a bagpipe.
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the drone string of a stringed instrument.
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a low-pitched tone; bass.
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a pipe organ stop of very low pitch.
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the bell in a carillon having the lowest pitch.
noun
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a 16-foot organ stop of the stopped diapason type
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the drone of a bagpipe
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a drone or pedal point in the bass of a harmonized melody
Etymology
Origin of bourdon
1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French; see burden 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
At the cathedral, the coffin was brought into the vast chamber and a bourdon bell tolled.
From New York Times ● Sep. 1, 2018
French hospital is now open and ready to receive the wounded at the french lycee in rue marcadieux bourdon Update | 1:49 p.m.
From New York Times ● Jan. 19, 2010
Madame Patel and Chardon, a moment later, were walking slowly down the broad avenue of trees through which drawled the bourdon of the breeze this night in early May.
From Melomaniacs by James Huneker
The combination of the faux bourdon and the remnant of the organum gives us the foundation for our modern tone system.
From Critical and Historical Essays Lectures delivered at Columbia University by W. J. (Winton James) Baltzell
Before us was the "bourdon," so called, weighing 2,200 pounds, the bronze monster upon which the bass note was sounded, and which sounded the hour over the level fields of Flanders.
From Vanished towers and chimes of Flanders by George Wharton Edwards
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.
