Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The largest bowed stringed instrument in the modern orchestra, also used frequently in jazz ensembles, especially played pizzicato. The double bass, usually considered a member of the violin family, is tuned in fourths and has the sloping shoulders and flat back characteristic of the viols. It has a deep range, going as low as three octaves below middle C. Also called bass fiddle, bass viol, bull fiddle, contrabass, string bass.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A musical instrument, the largest and deepest of the viol family, having 3 or 4 strings, with a compass of over 3 octaves from the third E below middle C. It was invented in the sixteenth century, and introduced into the orchestra about 1700; and it is now one of the most useful of orchestral instruments. The strings are usually tuned a fourth apart.
Wiktionary
- n. music The largest stringed instrument of the violin family.
- n. The deepest of all male voices.
WordNet 3.0
- n. largest and lowest member of the violin family
- adj. pitched an octave below normal bass instrumental or vocal range
Etymologies
- double, tuned an octave lower than (from the fact that a string or pipe that is twice the length of another gies a pitch an octave lower) + bass2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Among the members of the Polish band ” which consisted of a leader (Premier), four violins, one oboe, two French horns, three bassoons, and one double bass ” we meet with such well-known men as Johann Joachim Quanz and Franz Benda.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘double bass’.
-
MUSIC - jazz
funky, pedal, bebop, rap, mix, sub, mid, rag, ECM, bpm, bop, Afro and 437 more...
-
Organ Stops
A list of pipe- and pedal-organ stops. These have variously and perhaps at times capriciously been named and labelled by organ builders in Latin, English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, a...
diapason, double open diapason, sub-bourdon, double dulciana, bourdon, contra gamba, pyramidon, open diapason, stopped diapason, dulcis, dulciana, viol-di-gamba and 244 more...
-
•Open List: Two for One
Phrases using the word "double." No doubles allowed. ;-)
double over, double up, doubled fists, double blanket, double room, double bed, double time, double sink, double-time, double scotch, double back, on the double and 87 more...
-
Zing Went the Strings
lute, guitar, mandolin, violin, banjo, balalaika, sitar, pipa, autoharp, zither, kantele, guqin and 329 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for double bass.

Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.