skiffle
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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.
noun
noun
Etymology
Origin of skiffle1
Perhaps akin to scabble
Origin of skiffle2
First recorded in 1920–25; origin uncertain
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.
Already playing the proto-rock of skiffle, Nash skipped school to score tickets to see Bill Haley & His Comets with Clarke, days after his 15th birthday.
From New York Times • May 10, 2023
Krauss: I love Fairport Convention and skiffle and all the things that came from that.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 17, 2022
Comedian and skiffle historian Mark Lamarr added: "I knew him well and would often visit him at his home. You couldn't wish to meet a kinder, considerate, intelligent and above all musical gentlemen."
From BBC • Mar. 3, 2021
After settling in Connecticut in 1997, Mr. Valentine returned to his skiffle roots, forming the band Skiffledog, which toured the United States and released two albums.
From Washington Post • Jan. 31, 2021
What if skiffle, rather than the music of the Beatles, had seized the imagination of the world in 1963?
From The Guardian • Apr. 10, 2020
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.
