sackbut
Americannoun
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a medieval form of the trombone.
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Bible. an ancient stringed musical instrument. Daniel 3.
noun
Etymology
Origin of sackbut
First recorded in 1530–40; Early Modern English sagbut, sagbot, sagbout, from Middle French saquebute, from Old North French saqueboute, saquebot(t)e originally, a kind of hooked lance, equivalent to saquier “to pull” + (possibly) bouter “to push”; see origin at saccade, butt 3
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.
This will not be Monteverdi as we have heard him; there will be nary a period instrument in sight, neither a harpsichord nor a sackbut, a theorbo nor a cornett.
From New York Times • Jul. 22, 2023
Tinselled fantasy is shrewdly banished; putty-coloured, sullen fairies slouch along to the hoots and rustles, sackbut and curtal of Claire van Kampen's eerie music.
From The Guardian • Jun. 8, 2013
And Dietmar Küblböck matched him beautifully on an antique trombone, playing with a power and bite that left the instrument’s immediate ancestor, the sackbut, a distant memory.
From New York Times • Apr. 11, 2011
Come hear the sackbut, shawm and Medici Philharmonic The period before Bach was long the Atlantis of musical history: an entire realm sunk into oblivion, remembered only in legend.
From Time Magazine Archive
Shumakim: A statesman that has dropped his mask and cracked his sackbut.
From The Poems of Henry Van Dyke by Van Dyke, Henry
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.
