zither
Pronunciation Noun
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Pronunciation Noun
zither (plural zithers)
- (music) A musical instrument consisting of a flat sounding box with numerous strings placed on a horizontal surface, played with a plectrum or fingertips.
- (music, translations) Related or similar instruments in other cultures, such as the Chinese guqin or Norwegian harpeleik; especially any chordophone without a neck, and with strings that pass over the body.
zither (zithers, present participle zithering; past and past participle zithered)
- To play a zither.
- 1892, Edmund Gosse, The Secret of Narcisse, New York: United States Book Company, Chapter 3, pp. 100, 102,
- […] the fluting began again. Not alone this time, but, to Rosalie’s infinite surprise, accompanied on a zither. […] At this moment the fluting and zithering began again.
- 1906, William John Locke, The Belovéd Vagabond, New York: John Lane, 1911, Chapter 9, pp. 120-121,
- We wandered and fiddled and zithered and tambourined through France till the chills and rains of autumn rendered our vagabondage less merry.
- 1999, Richard Hacken (translator), “Mary in Misery” by Peter Rosegger in Into the Sunset: Anthology of Nineteenth-Century Austrian Prose, Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press, pp. 413-414,
- We traveled far and wide: he played the zither while I sang an accompaniment. […] He keeps zithering, and I sing like before, and before long we’ve put together a pretty good pile of money . . .
- 1892, Edmund Gosse, The Secret of Narcisse, New York: United States Book Company, Chapter 3, pp. 100, 102,
- To make a sound similar to that made by a zither; to move while making such a sound.
- circa 1890 May Ostlere, Dead! London: Trischler, Chapter 3, p. 76,
- Now [the wind] swithered through the badly-fixed windows, making zithering sounds as of an army of cold and frozen-out mosquitoes […]
- 1956, Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals, Penguin, 2000, Part Two, Chapter 10, p. 123,
- The olives seemed weighed down under the weight of their fruit, smooth drops of green jade among which the choirs of cicadas zithered.
- 1985, Kim Chapin, Dogwood Afternoons, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Chapter 19, p. 178,
- Once I owned a bike […] It had no fenders and one gear only, and on the forks, both fore and aft, I clipped some plastic playing cards to zither loudly through the spokes.
- 1996, Carl Huberman, Eminent Domain, London: Macmillan, Chapter 38, p. 328,
- ‘Look at that!’ she shouted, already backing up the Jeep, its tyres zithering on the crusty surface.
- 2004, Matt Braun, Black Gold, New York: St Martin’s Paperbacks, Chapter Fifteen, p. 158,
- The other men opened fire with pistols, slugs zithering past him with a dull whine.
- circa 1890 May Ostlere, Dead! London: Trischler, Chapter 3, p. 76,
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002