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definitions

skiffle

1
[skif-uh l]
|

verb (used with object), skif·fled, skif·fling.

knob(def 7).

Origin of skiffle

1
perhaps akin to scabble

skiffle

2
[skif-uh l]

noun

a jazz style of the 1920s deriving from blues, ragtime, and folk music, played by bands made up of both standard and improvised instruments.
a style of popular music developed in England during the 1950s, deriving from hillbilly music and rock-'n'-roll, and played on a heterogeneous group of instruments, as guitar, washboard, ceramic jug, washtub, and kazoo.

Origin of skiffle

2
First recorded in 1920–25; origin uncertain
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

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Contemporary Examples of skiffle

British Dictionary definitions for skiffle

skiffle

1

noun

a style of popular music of the 1950s, played chiefly on guitars and improvised percussion instruments

Word Origin for skiffle

C20: of unknown origin

skiffle

2

noun

Ulster dialect a drizzlea skiffle of rain

Word Origin for skiffle

from Scottish skiff, from skiff to move lightly, probably changed from skift, from Old Norse skipta shift
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
Word Origin and History for skiffle
n.

style of U.K. pop music, 1957, from U.S. slang meaning "type of jazz played on improvised instruments" (1926), of unknown origin.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper