hurdy-gurdy
Americannoun
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a barrel organ or similar musical instrument played by turning a crank.
-
a lute- or guitar-shaped stringed musical instrument sounded by the revolution against the strings of a rosined wheel turned by a crank.
noun
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any mechanical musical instrument, such as a barrel organ
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a medieval instrument shaped like a viol in which a rosined wheel rotated by a handle sounds the strings
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of hurdy-gurdy
1740–50; variant of Scots hirdy-girdy uproar, influencedby hurly-burly
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:
He loves to headbang while playing the hurdy-gurdy, an instrument he picked up in 2010 and later employed in the “Black Sails” show and “God of War: Ragnarok” video game.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
“Tonic” is one of several tracks in which the hurdy-gurdy is processed to resemble a snarling guitar, and a drum machine implies a relationship to experimental rock.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
Don’t expect hurdy-gurdy tunes at this big-top event.
From New York Times ● Apr. 13, 2017
The poverty-stricken tune of that name is a sharp little Brecht’n’ Weillish austerity melody, based on a repeat musical phrase that could be churned out of any street hurdy-gurdy.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 10, 2017
Them was a lot of cheering, a noise like a hurdy-gurdy which went on and on.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
To hear their early recordings in particular is to hear the timbres of the shawms, sackbuts and hurdy-gurdies of early instrumental music, rendered vocally.
From New York Times ● Jun. 25, 2011
He brought a bit of everything with him: lutes, gambas, hurdy-gurdies, psalteries, fancy carved music stands and even a serpent, an old wind instrument that looks like its namesake.
From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2011
Finally, the robbers resort to collecting all the hurdy-gurdies in the region to distract the boy from his long enough for them to get the gold.
From Time Magazine Archive
His 28-piece orchestra drones out Verdi's melodies like possessed hurdy-gurdies.
From Time Magazine Archive
I always miss the hurdy-gurdies when I 'm in the country, and I believe I shall buy one and have it play me to sleep at night.
From The Siege of the Seven Suitors by Nicholson, Meredith
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.
