castanets


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castanet

cas·ta·net

 (kăs′tə-nĕt′)
n.
often castanets A percussion instrument consisting of a pair of slightly concave shells of ivory or hardwood, held in the palm of the hand by a connecting cord over the thumb and clapped together with the fingers.
[Spanish castañeta, from castaña, chestnut, from Latin castanea; see chestnut.]

castanets

(ˌkæstəˈnɛts)
pl n
(Instruments) curved pieces of hollow wood, usually held between the fingers and thumb and made to click together: used esp by Spanish dancers
[C17 castanet, from Spanish castañeta, diminutive of castaña chestnut]
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.castanets - a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of hollow pieces of wood or bone (usually held between the thumb and fingers) that are made to click together (as by Spanish dancers) in rhythm with the dance
bones, clappers, finger cymbals
percussion instrument, percussive instrument - a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by one object striking another
plural, plural form - the form of a word that is used to denote more than one
Translations
صَنّاجات
kastaněty
kastagnet
kasztanyetta
kastaníettur, fingrasmella
kastanjetės
kastaņetes
kastanety
İspanyol çalparasıkastanyet

castanets

[ˌkæstəˈnets] NPL → castañuelas fpl

castanets

[ˌkæstəˈnɛts] npl → castagnettes fpl

castanets

pl → Kastagnetten pl

castanets

[ˌkæstəˈnɛts] npl → castagnette fpl, nacchere fpl

castanets

(kӕstəˈnets) noun plural
two hollow pieces of ivory or hard wood struck together as a rhythm for (especially Spanish) dances.
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References in classic literature ?
chimed in twenty voices, and the castanet player, in spite of the burden of his equipment, rushed out to the front and, walking backwards before the company, jerked his shoulders and flourished his castanets as if threatening someone.
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As we emerged into this river-bed path suddenly we started a troop of tall giraffes, who galloped, or rather sailed off, in their strange gait, their tails screwed up over their backs, and their hoofs rattling like castanets.
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That day, at the moment when, standing before the low door of his retreat, he was fitting into the lock the complicated little key which he always carried about him in the purse suspended to his side, a sound of tambourine and castanets had reached his ear.
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Seville: it brings to the mind girls dancing with castanets, singing in gardens by the Guadalquivir, bull-fights, orange-blossom, mantillas, mantones de Manila.
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And Jo shook the blue army sock till the needles rattled like castanets, and her ball bounded across the room.
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By the bed-head stood a rickety cupboard on four feet with a door that continually rattled with a sound like castanets.
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What he says is quite correct,' observed Blathers, nodding his head in a confirmatory way, and playing carelessly with the handcuffs, as if they were a pair of castanets.
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And she danced about the room, snapping her fingers instead of castanets.
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and goes out, leaving me in my fur by the blazing fire, my teeth going like castanets.
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It was a strange clicking noise in the distance not unlike castanets.
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With what stupendous and untranslatable coolness he says this, and how loungingly he leads on to the women's side: making, as he goes, a kind of iron castanet of the key and the stair-rail!
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That vulgar girl is singing the castanet song in the second act at this moment.
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