See mouth music in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for mouth music meaning in English (4.7kB)
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gd",
"3": "puirt à beul",
"4": "",
"5": "tunes from a mouth"
},
"expansion": "Calque of Scottish Gaelic puirt à beul (“tunes from a mouth”)",
"name": "cal"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Calque of Scottish Gaelic puirt à beul (“tunes from a mouth”).",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "mouth music (uncountable)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "37 17 46",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Music",
"orig": "en:Music",
"parents": [
"Art",
"Sound",
"Culture",
"Energy",
"Society",
"Nature",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1877, Angus Macleod (speaker), “The Reciters' Lament, and Their Story”, in Alexander Carmichael, transl., edited by W.Y. Evans-Wentz, The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, page 115",
"text": "She herself or one of the other crofter women of the townland would sing to us the mouth music.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1996, George Odam with Joan Arnold and Alison Ley, Sounds of Music (Teacher's Book), page 61",
"text": "‘Mouth music’ evolved in those parts of the country where poor people had no instruments but still wanted to dance.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2002, Charles Keil, Angeliki V. Keil, “Foreword”, in Bright Balkan Morning: Romani Lives & the Power of Music in Greek Macedonia, page xxiii",
"text": "Listening to flamenco, or to English Gypsy or Russian Gypsy folk song, or to the “babba-deep-babbaa-doop” mouth music of the Hungarian Roma, one would be hard put to identify a commonality.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The vocal imitation of instrumental music."
],
"id": "en-mouth_music-en-noun-2WQR5Y61",
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "100 0 0",
"word": "puirt a beul"
}
],
"tags": [
"uncountable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "37 17 46",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Music",
"orig": "en:Music",
"parents": [
"Art",
"Sound",
"Culture",
"Energy",
"Society",
"Nature",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1982, Jess Lair, Ain't I a Wonder and Ain't You a Wonder Too, page 71",
"text": "I lived both with no belief in a higher power and I lived with a so-called religious belief in a higher power that was purely a dead religion. It was just mouth music.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1986, California Lawyer - Volume 6, page 51",
"text": "Saying it applies to the civil service is just mouth music from people out to collect money from civil service employees.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2018, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Julia",
"text": "Julia made no reply to that remark; she was enchanted with him, as always, for the things he said, so unexpected, so very much there that she felt what he said was specifically for her, and not just mouth-music, like other grown-ups.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2022, Val McDermid, 1979, page 24",
"text": "Danny was pretty sure it was only mouth music, just as he was certain that Joseph only stayed under his parents' roof becausee it was cheaper than having a place of his own.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Words (or sometimes actions) that sound good but do not mean anything."
],
"id": "en-mouth_music-en-noun-FFTaypWm",
"tags": [
"uncountable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "9 4 88",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "8 5 87",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"parents": [
"Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "12 7 82",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"parents": [
"Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "37 17 46",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Music",
"orig": "en:Music",
"parents": [
"Art",
"Sound",
"Culture",
"Energy",
"Society",
"Nature",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "13 3 84",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Sex",
"orig": "en:Sex",
"parents": [
"All topics",
"Reproduction",
"Fundamental",
"Life",
"Nature"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1977, Charles Silverstein, Edmund White, The Joy of Gay Sex, New York: Crown Publishers, page 42",
"text": "At some point in almost every gay encounter someone will play a little mouth music.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Oral sex."
],
"id": "en-mouth_music-en-noun-g~YrmY6x",
"links": [
[
"Oral sex",
"oral sex"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang) Oral sex."
],
"tags": [
"slang",
"uncountable"
]
}
],
"word": "mouth music"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms calqued from Scottish Gaelic",
"English terms derived from Scottish Gaelic",
"English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"English uncountable nouns",
"en:Music",
"en:Sex"
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gd",
"3": "puirt à beul",
"4": "",
"5": "tunes from a mouth"
},
"expansion": "Calque of Scottish Gaelic puirt à beul (“tunes from a mouth”)",
"name": "cal"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Calque of Scottish Gaelic puirt à beul (“tunes from a mouth”).",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "mouth music (uncountable)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "puirt a beul"
}
],
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{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1877, Angus Macleod (speaker), “The Reciters' Lament, and Their Story”, in Alexander Carmichael, transl., edited by W.Y. Evans-Wentz, The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, page 115",
"text": "She herself or one of the other crofter women of the townland would sing to us the mouth music.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1996, George Odam with Joan Arnold and Alison Ley, Sounds of Music (Teacher's Book), page 61",
"text": "‘Mouth music’ evolved in those parts of the country where poor people had no instruments but still wanted to dance.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2002, Charles Keil, Angeliki V. Keil, “Foreword”, in Bright Balkan Morning: Romani Lives & the Power of Music in Greek Macedonia, page xxiii",
"text": "Listening to flamenco, or to English Gypsy or Russian Gypsy folk song, or to the “babba-deep-babbaa-doop” mouth music of the Hungarian Roma, one would be hard put to identify a commonality.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The vocal imitation of instrumental music."
],
"tags": [
"uncountable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1982, Jess Lair, Ain't I a Wonder and Ain't You a Wonder Too, page 71",
"text": "I lived both with no belief in a higher power and I lived with a so-called religious belief in a higher power that was purely a dead religion. It was just mouth music.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1986, California Lawyer - Volume 6, page 51",
"text": "Saying it applies to the civil service is just mouth music from people out to collect money from civil service employees.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2018, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Julia",
"text": "Julia made no reply to that remark; she was enchanted with him, as always, for the things he said, so unexpected, so very much there that she felt what he said was specifically for her, and not just mouth-music, like other grown-ups.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2022, Val McDermid, 1979, page 24",
"text": "Danny was pretty sure it was only mouth music, just as he was certain that Joseph only stayed under his parents' roof becausee it was cheaper than having a place of his own.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Words (or sometimes actions) that sound good but do not mean anything."
],
"tags": [
"uncountable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English slang",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1977, Charles Silverstein, Edmund White, The Joy of Gay Sex, New York: Crown Publishers, page 42",
"text": "At some point in almost every gay encounter someone will play a little mouth music.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Oral sex."
],
"links": [
[
"Oral sex",
"oral sex"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang) Oral sex."
],
"tags": [
"slang",
"uncountable"
]
}
],
"word": "mouth music"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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