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  1. ocarina love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A small terra-cotta or plastic wind instrument with finger holes, a mouthpiece, and an elongated ovoid shape.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A musical instrument, hardly more than a toy, consisting of a fancifully shaped terra-cotta body with a whistle-like mouthpiece and a number of finger-holes. Several different sizes or varieties are made. The tone is soft, but sonorous.

Wiktionary

  1. n. music A woodwind musical instrument that is closed at both sides to produce an enclosed space, and punctured with finger holes.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Mus.) A kind of small simple wind instrument.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. egg-shaped terra cotta wind instrument with a mouthpiece and finger holes

Etymologies

  1. Borrowed from Italian ocarina, literally “little goose”, due to the musical instrument’s resemblance to the animal. (Wiktionary)
  2. Italian, from dialectal ucarenna, diminutive of Italian oca, goose (from the fact that its mouthpiece is shaped like a goose's beak), from Vulgar Latin *auca, from *avica, from Latin avis, bird. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘ocarina’.

Comments

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  • bilby "It was one evening with the rain running in rivers that we cooked up a tune. From somewhere I had obtained an ocarina, and with Edgington banging on a box of matches we gradually bring the tune to life. The lyrics were:
    The Rhumba
    Roca-manfina Rhumba
    It's a snappy little number
    Roca-mana-fina way.

    Caramba!
    All the natives say Caramba.
    Rocamanafina Rhumba
    Rocamanafina way.
    "
    - Spike Milligan, 'Mussolini: My Part In His Downfall'. Apr 25, 2009

  • sarra I like the broccoli ocarina (broccarina?) — cf. YouTube.

    I do have a completed make-it-yourself one in lovely orange cardboard. And can play jigs on it. Nov 10, 2008

  • elgiad007 An ocarina is mentioned in a scene of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Nov 9, 2008

  • kewpid The funnest iPhone app ever!!! Nov 9, 2008

  • caxton ocarina n, a simple wind instrument typically having an oval body with finger holes and a projecting mouthpiece Jan 7, 2008

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‘ocarina’ has been looked up 2002 times, loved by 2 people, added to 33 lists, commented on 6 times, and has a Scrabble score of 9.