KAZOO Definition & Meaning

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kazoo

[ kuh-zoo ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

plural kazoos.

Also called mirliton. a musical toy consisting of a tube that is open at both ends and has a hole in the side covered with parchment or membrane, which produces a buzzing sound when the performer hums into one end.
Slang.
1. the buttocks.
2. the anus.

kazoo

/ ��əˈ��ː /

noun

a cigar-shaped musical instrument of metal or plastic with a membranous diaphragm of thin paper that vibrates with a nasal sound when the player hums into it

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of kazoo¹

An Americanism dating back to 1880–85; 1965–70 kazoo fordef 2; origin uncertain; alleged to be imitative; wazoo ( def )

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of kazoo¹

C20: probably imitative of the sound produced

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Idioms and Phrases

pain in the kazoo, Slang. pain ( def 5 ):
Organizing the family reunion was a big pain in the kazoo.
up / out the kazoo, Slang. wazoo ( def 3 ):
We pay taxes up the kazoo, but the streets are still full of potholes and trash collection comes late.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Ms Millington's challenges have so far also included barefoot running, blacksmithing, beekeeping and busking on the streets of York in a turkey outfit playing Christmas songs on a kazoo.

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One instrument sounded like a wild kazoo, shrill to the point of radical harshness — something like true freedom.

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Live entertainment district, even as picketing hotel workers lined the sides of the street playing drums and kazoos.

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While lit with the penumbra of a spotlight aimed elsewhere, he coolly mimed the smoking of a cigarette with a kazoo.

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She was playing the kazoo and poking around.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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