timbrel

[tim-bruh l]

noun

a tambourine or similar instrument.

Origin of timbrel

1490–1500; earlier timbre drum (see timbre) + -el diminutive suffix

Related formstim·breled, tim·brelled, adjectivetim·brel·ist, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for timbrel

Historical Examples of timbrel

They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
Short Studies on Great Subjects
James Anthony Froude
Some neglect him entirely; skipping lightly from Timbrel to Timbuctoo.
Chimney-Pot Papers
Charles S. Brooks
It is his own daughter, his only child, going out to meet him with the timbrel and with dances.
Oriental Women
Edward Bagby Pollard
Here are the trumpets, the harp, the psaltery, and the timbrel.
Tuscan Sculpture of the Fifteenth Century
Estelle M. Hurll
Tympanum is used for a timbrel or drum, tympanidia a diminutive of it.
Cicero's Tusculan Disputations
Marcus Tullius Cicero

British Dictionary definitions for timbrel

timbrel

noun

mainly Bible another word for tambourine

Word Origin for timbrel

C16: from Old French; see timbre

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 timbrel

"percussive Middle Eastern instrument," c.1500, diminutive of timbre (q.v.) in its older French sense of "drum." Used in Bible translations, chiefly to render Hebrew toph, cognate with Arabic duff "drum," of imitative origin.