Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An ornamental border, generally composed of ebony and maple or sycamore, inlaid in the edges of violins and similar instruments.
Wiktionary
- n. music Two very narrow strips of black wood enclosing a lighter-coloured strip of wood set close to the edge of the top and back of a string instrument such as a violin, cello or a guitar, following its outline. Double, painted-on and decorative patterns of purfling are also found.
- v. present participle of purfle.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Ornamentation on the border of a thing; specifically, the inlaid border of a musical instrument, as a violin.
Examples
“The purfling is a trifle wider, but narrower than that afterwards used.”
“The purfling also forms an important item in the collection of landmarks; certain makers are supposed to have invariably used one kind of purfling, no variation being allowed for width or material adopted.”
“When you are about say an inch from each on both of its turns, work the three-quarter inch gouge, 52, still more guardedly, and barely so deep, and to a very fine point, both curves, ready to receive the two joined pieces of purfling which is to present you with what is called the "Bees 'sting.”
“And if your eyes saw her earth, and the adornment thereof with bloom, and the purfling of it with all manner blossoms, and the islands of the Nile and how much is therein of wide spread and goodly prospect, and if you bent your sight upon the Abyssinian”
“And the reason he bothered to do it was because otherwise you just don't get your purfling [the three - piece wood sandwich that runs along the edge of a violin] to meet up, and you have a stupid-looking clunky thing, so it was actually a very practical, workmanlike adaptation to some design thing that he wanted to do.”
“The way wood contributes is by vibrating in a certain way, moving in a certain way, a way in which the purfling is assimilated.”
“He turned it over and over in the sunlight, amazed at the exquisite purfling and binding, the gorgeous inlay and the perfect craftsmanship of the tapered sections of the belly.”
“The guitar Dickie had bought at one of those nighttime open-air markets where twenty-dollar "Rolex" watches and ten-dollar "Gucci" loafers were sold, and to the untrained eye, it looked exactly like a dandy Martin D-28, right down to the herringbone purfling.”
“The Guarneri lay there, its top and its purfling gleaming, the repository of two hundred and fifty years of music-making shimmering from its F holes, its sides, and its pegs.”
“On all of these instruments will be found his name, surrounded with a design in purfling, under the finger-board, or his monogram executed in purfling.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘purfling’.
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Specifically
Being a list of words which have "specifically" in their definitions.
recompose, specifically, Dutch, abstinence, discipline, virtue, namely, opening, century, amalgamation, cup, second and 303 more...
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MUSIC - ALL TERMS
With focus on non-classical styles, but not excluding terms of the latter.
banjo, accompaniment, acoustic bass, bass guitar, bass clef, ground, brass, cornet, Mute, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, arrangement and 866 more...
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Gaw
Words for things both tangible and anthropic. I'm in the process of spinning off hardware into ute, and people into oofy.
cum-twang, naumachia, yngling, juggernaught, bliss ninny, iliac crest, moistened bint, slumlord, spondoolies, classy lady, charnel house, electrodoméstico and 334 more...
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How do you like Kipling?
Words which fit the joke format: "How do you like X-in(g)? I don't know, I've never X-ed".
kipling, duckling, fingerling, groundling, chickling, chitterling, changeling, gosling, yearling, hireling, inkling, quisling and 98 more...
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A Peckerwick of Fiffoldry
fogray, whalesong, solregn, shoecabbage, thorn-bush, thistledown, pomander, thornbush, dreamy duskywing, sedge, unbunting-like, quilp and 119 more...
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new acquisitions
found in the wild (i.e., not on Wordie!)
samara, indehiscent, paschal, rogation, wen, rete, diriment, epicene, duramen, euhemerism, objurgate, canaille and 429 more...
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Music
sackbut, quaternion, carillon, luthier, pizzicato, purfling, jig, ditty, tritone, blue note, ostinato, mellifluent and 13 more...
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Violin parts
Meronyms for violin.
fingerboard, nut, bout, f hole, tailpiece, neck, scroll, pegbox, bridge, bass bar, sound post, belly and 3 more...
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Luthier's Craft
Parts of stringed instruments, especially guitars
courses, binding, bout, bracing, bridge, f hole, fingerboard, fretboard, frets, headstock, heel, inlays and 13 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for purfling.
sionnach "How do you like purfling?"
"I don't know; I've never purfled." Nov 15, 2007
skipvia Sometimes used synonymously to refer to an instrument's binding, purfling is actually the strips of wood or other binding material inside the outer binding of the guitar or other stringed instrument. Nov 15, 2007