trombone - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

A tenor trombone

Borrowed from Italian trombone, from tromba (“trumpet”) +‎ -one (augmentative), literally “large trumpet”. The telecommunications sense alludes to the shape of the musical instrument.

trombone (plural trombones or tromboni)

  1. A musical instrument in the brass family, having a cylindrical bore, and usually a sliding tube (but sometimes piston valves, and rarely both). Most often refers to the tenor trombone, which is the most common type of trombone and has a fundamental tone of B♭ˌ (contra B♭).
    Jim plays the trombone very well.
    This trombone is very expensive.
    • 2003, Don Michael Randel, The Harvard Dictionary of Music, page 598:
      Horns, trumpets, and trombones, both soloistically and sectionally, became central to the orchestral concept... His highly subtle orchestration elevates woodwinds, more often scored soloistically than sectionally.
    • 2015 August 1, Vanessa Thorpe, “Musicians launch campaign to save the bassoon as shortage threatens orchestra”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      Using the “endangered species” model employed by the World Wide Fund for Nature, campaigners are highlighting the scarcity of bassoonists and paving the way for the promotion of some other orchestral instruments that are under threat, such as the oboe, French horn, viola, trombone and double bass.
  2. The common European bittern.
  3. (film, television) A kind of extendable support for attaching lighting elements to a set.
    • 1983, Alan Wurtzel, Television Production, page 131:
      The trombone […] permits an instrument to be positioned over a studio set wall, enabling the set wall to support the weight of the instrument.
    • 2013, Harry Box, Set Lighting Technician's Handbook, page 480:
      The two secondary controls are the trombone handle and the focus knob.

a musical instrument in the brass family

trombone (third-person singular simple present trombones, present participle tromboning, simple past and past participle tromboned)

  1. (telecommunications) To transmit a signal or data back to a central switching point before sending it out to its destination.
  2. (film, slang, transitive) To extend and retract (the zoom lens); to use it too enthusiastically.
    • 2015, Kathryn Ramey, Experimental Filmmaking: Break the Machine, page 357:
      […] do things wrong (like rotating the lens turret while shooting or backwinding and doing multiple passes on the same strip of film or doing in-camera fades with the variable shutter or tromboning a zoom lens like a teenager on acid, etc., etc., etc.) […]
    • 2014, Henry K. Miller, The Essential Raymond Durgnat, page 71:
      He recalls (email to editor, 2 December 2012) that Durgnat 'shouted out' in response to his 'tromboning' the zoom-lens at the film's 1967 London Film Festival screening: […]

trombone c (plural trombones, no diminutive)

  1. (music) trombone

Borrowed from Italian trombone.

trombone m (plural trombones)

  1. (music) trombone
  2. paper clip

trombone

  1. inflection of tromboner:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

From tromba (“trumpet”) +‎ -one (augmentative suffix).

trombone m (plural tromboni)

  1. (music) trombone
  2. (by extension) trombonist
    Synonym: trombonista
  3. (figurative) an annoying and boring person, especially if arrogant, old or moralist
  4. (historical) arquebuse
    Synonym: archibugio
  5. a type of boot
  6. wild daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus)
  7. synonym of tarabuso

trombone m (definite singular trombonen, indefinite plural tromboner, definite plural trombonene)

  1. (music) a trombone
    Synonym: trekkbasun

trombone m (definite singular trombonen, indefinite plural trombonar, definite plural trombonane)

  1. (music) a trombone
    Synonym: trekkbasun

Borrowed from Italian trombone.

trombone m (plural trombones)

  1. (music) trombone (a musical instrument in the brass family)