viol

a stringed musical instrument: He was the finest viol player in the orchestra.

Not to be confused with:

vial – a small container used for liquids: The biology student held up a vial of swamp water.

vile – disgusting; loathsome; depraved: He’s a vile man with a cruel streak.

vi·ol

(vī′əl)

1. Any of a family of stringed instruments, chiefly of the 1500s and 1600s, having a fretted fingerboard, usually six strings, and a flat back and played with a curved bow.

2. See viola da gamba.

[Alteration of Middle English viel, from Old French viole, vielle, from Old Provençal viola; see viola¹.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

viol

(ˈvaɪəl)

(Instruments) any of a family of stringed musical instruments that preceded the violin family, consisting of a fretted fingerboard, a body rather like that of a violin but having a flat back and six strings, played with a curved bow. They are held between the knees when played and have a quiet yet penetrating tone; they were much played, esp in consorts, in the 16th and 17th centuries

[C15: from Old French viole, from Old Provençal viola; see viola¹]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

vi•ol

(ˈvaɪ əl)

n.

a bowed musical instrument, differing from the violin in having deeper ribs, sloping shoulders, a greater number of strings, usu. six, and frets: common in the 16th and 17th centuries in various sizes from the treble viol to the bass viol.

[1475–85; < Middle French viole (akin to Old French viel(l)e> earlier E viele) < Old Provençal viola, derivative of violar to play the viol or a similar instrument (perhaps imitative)]

vi′ol•ist, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

viol - any of a family of bowed stringed instruments that preceded the violin family

bowed stringed instrument, string - stringed instruments that are played with a bow; "the strings played superlatively well"

viola da braccio - a member of the viol family with approximately the range of a viola

bass viol, gamba, viola da gamba - viol that is the bass member of the viol family with approximately the range of the cello

viola d'amore - viol that is the tenor of the viol family

Translations

viola

viol

[ˈvaɪəl] N → viola f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

viol

[ˈvaɪəl] n → viole f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

viol

n → Viola f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in classic literature

No rays from the holy heaven come down On the long night-time of that town; But light from out the lurid sea Streams up the turrets silently - Gleams up the pinnacles far and free - Up domes - up spires - up kingly halls - Up fanes - up Babylon-like walls - Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers Of scultured ivy and stone flowers - Up many and many a marvellous shrine Whose wreathed friezes intertwine The viol, the violet, and the vine.

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Herbert was very fond of music; he sang, and played too, upon the lute and viol. One day as he was walking into Salisbury to play with some friends "he saw a poor man with a poorer horse, which was fallen under his load.

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Madame had never been able to extract four correct notes from either viol or harpsichord.

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Lifting his hand to his head, the absent-minded Professor gravely felt and removed the little cocked hat, looked at it a minute, and then threw back his head and laughed like a merry bass viol.

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We got rid of all gloom in the excitement of the exercise, and our pleasure was increased by the arrival of the Gimmerton band, mustering fifteen strong: a trumpet, a trombone, clarionets, bassoons, French horns, and a bass viol, besides singers.

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Immediately a prelude of pipe, cithern, and viol, touched with practised minstrelsy, began to play from a neighboring thicket, in such a mirthful cadence that the boughs of the Maypole quivered to the sound.

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Walking on tiptoe round the bushes, he stood in amazement to see two men bounding about on their heads, while they played, the one a viol and the other a pipe, as merrily and as truly as though they were seated in a choir.

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They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute.

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"Why, yes," said Robert Danforth, his strong voice filling the shop as with the sound of a bass viol, "I consider myself equal to anything in the way of my own trade; though I should have made but a poor figure at yours with such a fist as this," added he, laughing, as he laid his vast hand beside the delicate one of Owen.

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These descendants of the sect of Zoroaster--the most thrifty, civilised, intelligent, and austere of the East Indians, among whom are counted the richest native merchants of Bombay--were celebrating a sort of religious carnival, with processions and shows, in the midst of which Indian dancing-girls, clothed in rose-coloured gauze, looped up with gold and silver, danced airily, but with perfect modesty, to the sound of viols and the clanging of tambourines.

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"And her eyes should be my light while the sun went out behind me, And the viols in her voice be the last sound in my ear."

"There are viols in your voice," he said bluntly, and his eyes flashed their golden light.

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