skiffle

¹ American  

[skif-uhl] / ˈskɪf əl /

verb (used with object)

skiffled, skiffling

1. knob.

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skiffle ² American  

[skif-uhl] / ˈskɪf əl /

noun

1. a jazz style of the 1920s deriving from blues, ragtime, and folk music, played by bands made up of both standard and improvised instruments.

2. 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.

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skiffle ¹ British  

/ ˈskɪfəl /

noun

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

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skiffle ² British  

/ ˈskɪfəl /

noun

1. dialect a drizzle

   a skiffle of rain

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Etymology

Origin of skiffle¹

Perhaps akin to scabble

Origin of skiffle²

First recorded in 1920–25; origin uncertain

Example Sentences

They met in the summer of 1957 at a garden party in the Liverpool suburb of Woolton, where 17-year-old Lennon was performing with his skiffle band the Quarrymen.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 4, 2025

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

It soon became a favorite in the British folk-music scene and a radio hit; it even made it into the repertoire of Liverpool skiffle band, the Quarrymen, sung by a teenage John Lennon.

From Washington Post • Nov. 4, 2022

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

Lennon formed the skiffle and rock 'n' roll group in early 1957 alongside Rod Davis, Pete Shotton, Colin Hanton, Eric Griffiths and Len Garry.

From BBC • Apr. 9, 2020