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rebec

American  
[ree-bek] / ˈri bɛk /
Or rebeck

noun

  1. a Renaissance fiddle with a pear-shaped body tapering into a neck that ends in a sickle-shaped or scroll-shaped pegbox.


rebec British  
/ ˈriːbɛk /

noun

  1. a medieval stringed instrument resembling the violin but having a lute-shaped body

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of rebec

1745–55; < Middle French; replacing Middle English ribibe < Old French rebebe ≪ Arabic rabāb rebab


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.

See Examples For:

The action is accompanied by music suggestive of everything from Gregorian chant to folk song, played on reproductions of such authentic medieval instruments as a psaltery, a rebec, a minstrel's harp.

From Time Magazine Archive

The vocal parts suggest everything from Gregorian chant to folk song, the orchestra includes such authentic curiosities as a rebec, a vielle and a minstrel's harp.

From Time Magazine Archive

Next came the minstrels, playing merrily on tabor, fife, sacbut, rebec, and tambourine.

From The Star-Chamber, Volume 1 An Historical Romance by William Harrison Ainsworth

The rebec was not known in Arabia until nearly two centuries after we find the crwth mentioned by Venance Fortunatus.

From A Popular History of the Art of Music From the Earliest Times Until the Present by W. S. B. (William Smythe Babcock) Mathews

The following were the names of the instruments: cittern, bagpipe, clarion, rebec, psaltery, syrinx, sackbut, regals, gittern, shalm, timbral, and cymbals!

From From John O'Groats to Land's End by Robert Naylor

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