work song
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of work song
First recorded in 1920–25
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.
It arrived as the music of dire necessity, the work song, the psalm, and was subsequently used to distract and entertain captors, or to scare them off with screams and moans they couldn’t decipher.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2023
A very old prison work song, “Water Boy” is stark, long-suffering and proud: “There ain’t no hammer that’s on this mountain/That ring like mine.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 26, 2023
It’s a call-and-response work song, likely concocted spontaneously by overnight dockworkers cramming bunches of bananas onto ships, hot-footing it away from loose spiders, and fantasizing about rum.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 22, 2017
Strachwitz named Arhoolie after a type of work song, a field holler, that had deep roots in African-American musical culture.
From Reuters ● Jan. 24, 2013
It was her mama’s work song, which meant that she was cleaning somewhere off in that direction.
From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland
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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.
