• Concertina

    Pronunciation

    • RP IPA: /ËŒkÉ’nsəˈtiːnÉ™/
    • US IPA: /ËŒkÉ‘nsɚˈtinÉ™/

    Full definition of concertina

    Noun

    concertina

    (plural concertinas)
    1. (musical instruments) A musical instrument, like the various accordions, that is a member of the free-reed family of musical instruments, typically having buttons on both ends.
      • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 8, That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberry picker's overalls.
    2. Something resembling a concertina, such as a folded book, a bus door or a set of picture frames that are folded together.
    3. Coiled barbed wire for use as an obstacle.Webster's New Dictionary And Thesaurus, Geddes & Grosset Ltd., New Lanark, Scotland 1990
    4. A type of booklet label, consisting of up to 32 pages of booklet as an insert.

    Verb

    1. to become compressed into a shape reminiscent of a concertinaThe car concertinaed into the wall.
      • 2012, Amy Schoeman, Skeleton Coast, page iiMillions of years ago the mica schists surrounding the old Brandberg West Mine became folded and concertinaed by enormous horizontal pressures.
    2. to be drawn closer and farther apart repeatedly, or up and down, as if situated on a working concertina's folds
      • 2007, David W Cameron, 25 April 1915: The Day the Anzac Legend Was Born, page 36This resulted in some fragmentation of the line as the boats in some cases closed to just 50 metres as they concertinaed in and out of sight of each other.
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