2014年6月18日 星期三

sax, waggle, wamble, reed, clarinet,


  • "Sex and violence was never really my cup of tea; I was always more into sax and violins."


The jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen.
Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Jazz’s Skinny Stepchild

The once-dominant clarinet faded into obscurity when the sax became the reed of choice. But in the hands of Anat Cohen, a 38-year-old Israeli, the clarinet is cool again.



Marxists of the World, Unite

Groucho wouldn’t come to any club that would have him, but you should. Tonight, the jazz ensemble Ballin’ the Jack, led by the clarinetist and saxophonist Matt Darriau, will play music from Marx Brothers films,complete with Grouchoesque vocals from the alto saxophonist Roy Nathanson.” Hope for “A Night at the Opera” and a good eyebrow waggle.

wamble (verb) Move unsteadily or with a weaving or rolling motion.
Synonyms:waggle
Usage:As John wambled into the kitchen for his morning coffee, his head pounding and stomach reeling, he made a silent vow never to get drunk again.



 wamble [ˈwɒmbəl] Dialect chiefly Brit
vb (intr)
1. to move unsteadily
2. to twist the body
3. (Medicine / Pathology) to feel nausea
n
1. an unsteady movement
2. (Medicine / Pathology) a sensation of nausea
[C14 wamelen to feel ill, perhaps of Scandinavian origin; compare Norwegian vamla to stagger]
wambliness  n
wambly  adj

waggle


verb

informal
  • move or cause to move with short quick movements from side to side or up and down: [no object]:his arm waggled [with object]:Mary waggled a glass at them
  • [with object] swing (a golf club) loosely to and fro over the ball before playing a shot.

noun

  • an act of waggling.

Origin:

late 16th century: frequentative of wag1




reed

Pronunciation: /riːd/
Translate reed | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of reed

noun

  • 1a tall, slender-leaved plant of the grass family, which grows in water or on marshy ground.
    • Genera Phragmites and Arundo, family Gramineae: several species, in particular the common (or Norfolk) reed (P. australis), which is used for thatching
  • used in names of plants similar to the reed and growing in wet habitats, e.g. bur-reed.
  • a tall straight stalk of a reed plant, used especially as a material in making thatch or household items: a harvest of thatching reeds [mass noun:, as modifier]:a reed curtain
  • [mass noun] British straw used for thatching.
  • literary a rustic musical pipe made from a reed or from straw: as if thy waves had only heard the shepherd’s reed
  • 2a thing or person resembling or likened to a reed, in particular:
  • a weak or impressionable person:the jurors were mere reeds in the wind
  • literary an arrow: a bright reed of energy pierced the starship bridge
  • (reeds) a set of semi-cylindrical adjacent mouldings like reeds laid together.
  • 3a piece of thin cane or metal, sometimes doubled, which vibrates in a current of air to produce the sound of various musical instruments, as in the mouthpiece of a clarinet or oboe or at the base of some organ pipes: [as modifier]:a reed instrument
  • a wind instrument played with a reed.
  • an organ stop with reed pipes.
  • 4an electrical contact used in a magnetically operated switch or relay: the permanent magnet closes the reeds and contacts together [as modifier]:a reed relay
  • 5a weaver’s comb-like implement (originally made from reed or cane) for separating the threads of the warp and correctly positioning the weft.

Phrases


a broken reed

a weak or ineffectual person: the superintendent of this building appears to be a broken reed

Origin:

Old English hrēod, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch riet and German Ried



sax1

Pronunciation: /saks/

Definition of sax

noun

informal
  • a saxophone: alto sax [as modifier]:a sax solo
  • a saxophone player: tenor saxes Alan Thompson and Sue Ferris

Derivatives


saxist

noun

Origin:

early 20th century: abbreviation

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