Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See harmonica, 2.
  • noun An orchestrion.
  • noun An acoustical apparatus consisting of a flame of hydrogen burning in a glass tube so as to produce a musical tone. See singing-flame.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A small, flat, wind instrument of music, in which the notes are produced by the vibration of free metallic reeds; it is now called the harmonica.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun dated ,(music) the harmonica

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The music which produced the miraculous effect was that of Kouei, the Orpheus of the Chinese, whose performance on the king, a kind of harmonicon constructed of slabs of sonorous stone, would draw wild animals around him and make them subservient to his will.

    Brave Men and Women Fuller, O E 1884

  • The music which produced the miraculous effect was that of Kouei, the Orpheus of the Chinese, whose performance on the _king_, a kind of harmonicon constructed of slabs of sonorous stone, would draw wild animals around him and make them subservient to his will.

    Brave Men and Women Their Struggles, Failures, And Triumphs 1867

  • Redwood thought that over, and decided that his son might best begin with a very pure-sounding harmonicon of one octave, to which afterwards there could be an extension.

    The Food of the Gods and how it came to Earth Herbert George 2004

  • In the breath of the wind these slips, with all their notes varied like those of a harmonicon, gave forth a most melancholy murmuring.

    Robur the Conqueror 2003

  • Charles Augustus, she selected an harmonicon, and toys for the other three Howes.

    Elsie Marley, Honey Joslyn Gray

  • The metal harmonicon is known in Javanese language as the _gambang_, and I have no better name to propose.

    Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878. Various

  • Exposition is a wooden harmonicon with twenty bars, and seven bronze harmonicons with bars varying greatly in size and shape, and consequently in tone, and in number from eight to twenty-one in an instrument.

    Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878. Various

  • After marching solemnly round the idol three times this individual seated himself tailor-fashion before it, laid the instrument on his knees, and began to hammer upon it with a couple of sticks; whereupon we became aware that he was playing upon a rude imitation of a child's harmonicon, the keys of which appeared to be constructed of hard wood, out of which he managed to beat a very fair specimen of barbaric music.

    The Congo Rovers A Story of the Slave Squadron Harry Collingwood 1886

  • The horns, drums, and harmonicon now broke forth afresh into a hideous clamour, which, however, was powerless to drown the dismal shrieks of the victim; and the fetish-man, arming himself with a large broad-bladed and most murderous-looking knife, began to dance slowly, with most extraordinary contortions of visage and body, round the idol.

    The Congo Rovers A Story of the Slave Squadron Harry Collingwood 1886

  • A pause of perhaps a couple of minutes ensued, and then horns, drums, and harmonicon suddenly burst out with a loud confused fantasia, each man apparently doing his utmost to drown the noise of the others.

    The Congo Rovers A Story of the Slave Squadron Harry Collingwood 1886

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