Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb Grammar To shorten (a word) by syncope.
- transitive verb Music To modify (rhythm) by syncopation.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To contract, as a word, by taking one or more letters or syllables from the middle, as exemplified in Gloster for Gloucester.
- In music, to affect by syncopation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb (Gram.) To contract, as a word, by taking one or more letters or syllables from the middle.”
- transitive verb (Mus.) To commence, as a tone, on an unaccented part of a measure, and continue it into the following accented part, so that the accent is driven back upon the weak part and the rhythm drags.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive, linguistics to
omit asound or aletter from aword ; to usesyncope - verb transitive, music to
stress oraccentuate the weakbeat of arhythm ; to usesyncopation
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb modify the rhythm by stressing or accenting a weak beat
- verb omit a sound or letter in a word
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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Every ragtime or jazz enthusiast knows that when you syncopate from the Greek for “cut short”, you begin a note on a weak beat in the bar, sustaining it into the accented part, thereby shifting the accent.
The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004
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Every ragtime or jazz enthusiast knows that when you syncopate from the Greek for “cut short”, you begin a note on a weak beat in the bar, sustaining it into the accented part, thereby shifting the accent.
The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004
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All syncopate smartly, but the big surprise is Ken Peplowski's clarinet, which adds a swinging blue coolness to the festive heat, particularly on "Sleigh Ride" and "Winter Wonderland."
Under the Tree, but No Sap Marc Myers 2011
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Shifts in density created by clusters of strokes now more open, now more closed animate and syncopate the upper regions, like variations in the density of a canopy of trees with different habits of growth.
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I let these sounds syncopate the air coming in and out of my lungs, and concentrating, like this, on the most basic block of life, I fall asleep.
Vivian Rising Daniella Brodsky 2010
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She cradles Cisco in her arms and lap, rocking him as if to sleep, and her screams syncopate with every motion forward.
Tattoos on the Heart Gregory Boyle 2010
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The camera cuts help syncopate this–we are on the train, and the billboards change, but before we can see the final billboard flip over we go into the tunnel…
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You enter through that wall, and they'll have a wall of water, and they're going to try to syncopate it to the actual rhythm of Dr. King's voice.
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I mean, I think the way that he said to me is like ` You know, wouldn't it be great if you could syncopate Bartok? '
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I mean, I think the way that he said to me is like ` You know, wouldn't it be great if you could syncopate Bartok? '
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