psaltery

American  

[sawl-tuh-ree] / ˈsɔl tə ri /

noun

plural

psalteries

1. an ancient musical instrument consisting of a flat sounding box with numerous strings which are plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum.

2. (initial capital letter) the Psalter.

---

psaltery British  

/ ˈsɔːltərɪ /

noun

1. music an ancient stringed instrument similar to the lyre, but having a trapezoidal sounding board over which the strings are stretched

---

Etymology

Origin of psaltery

1300–50; Middle English sautrie < Middle French sauter(i)e < Late Latin psaltērium; Psalter

Example Sentences

Once, he had carried Robin to another part of the monastery, and showed him where records of everyday living were written and poems and psalteries copied.

From Literature

All happy the psalteries, the cymbals grew light, With sounding thy triumphs from morning till night.

From Project Gutenberg

He sent for a psaltery, and tried the patient with soothing melodies; but, if the other tunes maddened him, Clement's seem to crush him.

From Project Gutenberg

Among the Russians, the gusli is an instrument of a different type, a kind of psaltery having five or more strings stretched across a flat, shallow sound-chest in the shape of a wing.

From Project Gutenberg

Or else the seraphim would call: "Minstrels, your dulcimers let fall And break the silvern psalteries!"

From Project Gutenberg