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.
See Examples For:
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
The song sold a million copies and popularised the British skiffle scene that inspired the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton.
From BBC ● Mar. 3, 2021
Getting his first guitar at 13, he formed a musical group called the Heppers, playing the popular skiffle music of the time.
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
It's an impression reinforced live by his skiffling two-piece pick-up band; they'll be popping up to entertain at a number of festivals this week.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 20, 2012
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
