Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A toy musical instrument with a membrane that produces a buzzing sound when a player hums or sings into the mouthpiece.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A so-called musical instrument or toy, consisting of a wooden tube of peculiar shape, containing a vibrating strip of catgut.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A kind of toy or rude musical instrument, as a tube inside of which is a stretched string or membrane made to vibrate by singing or humming into the tube.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a simple
musical instrument consisting of a pipe with a hole in it, producing a buzzing sound when theplayer hums into it. - verb to play the kazoo.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a toy wind instrument that has a membrane that makes a sound when you hum into the mouthpiece
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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*Takes a kazoo an marches in a circle blowin kazoo* Woot, woot, woot.
Yeah – you were rite Pete - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2009
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 The most common kazoo is the Soprano kazoo, which is the most noticeable form of the instrument.
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If Palin can have a policy “maestro” then a five-year-old with a kazoo is an orchestra.
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 The kazoo is classified as a âmirlitonâ â or vibrating membrane instrument (bet they didnât teach you that in high school band).
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And though a kazoo is what it most often brings to mind, it also variously evokes a congested saxophone, wind in a bottle and echoes from a crypt.
January 2005 2005
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More fun to play than to listen to, the kazoo is the simple inbred cousin of the harmonica.
Archive 2005-09-01 Sam Jordison 2005
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More fun to play than to listen to, the kazoo is the simple inbred cousin of the harmonica.
Some digests Sam Jordison 2005
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The neat thing about the kazoo is the more kazoos, the better it sounds.
Island Packet: Home 2010
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The origin of the name "kazoo," however, is unclear.
American Profile 2009
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As far as my own creations … I'm pretty sure there is no 'kazoo' instrument, so I'm out.
notanotherjazzpoet commented on the word kazoo
Did you know that Eden, NY is home to the only metal kazoo factory in North America? http://www.edenkazoo.com/history.php
February 8, 2007
sonofgroucho commented on the word kazoo
I well remember the metal kazoo I had as a child.
February 8, 2007
johnmperry commented on the word kazoo
When I was a boy, we made do with a comb and some toilet paper. Not that soft toilet paper we get nowadays, but hard medicated stuff.
June 19, 2008
reesetee commented on the word kazoo
We always used waxed paper.
June 19, 2008
madmouth commented on the word kazoo
hard medicated toilet paper? o brave new world
July 20, 2009