concertina
pronunciation
How to pronounce concertina in British English:
UK [ˌkɒnsəˈti:nə]
How to pronounce concertina in American English:
US [ˌkɑnsərˈtinə]
-
- Noun:
- coiled barbed wire used as an obstacle
- free-reed instrument played like an accordion by pushing its ends together to force air through the reeds
-
- Verb:
- collapse like a concertina
Word Origin
- concertina (n.)
- 1835, from concert + fem. ending -ina. Portable musical instrument invented 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone. Concertina wire attested by 1917, so called from similarity to the musical instrument.
Example
- 1. It might just be possible to concertina the three meetings into one morning .
- 2. But this concertina movement requires a lot of energy .
- 3. Something about choosing love over duty ? Oh , wait , let me get my concertina !
- 4. He described how he and a dozen others were swept up in a raid by the us army and detained on a bare patch of ground surrounded by concertina wire .
- 5. In truth , the expo by itself has changed little in shanghai , rather it has been an excuse to concertina a series of investments that were already on the books , squeezing a decade of plans into three or four years .