Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A rattle or clapper, made of wood or bone, anciently used in Egypt and Greece.
  • noun A name given to bells of the form of sleigh-bells or grelots.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mus.) A kind of castanet used by the Corybantes.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A kind of clapper or castanet used in religious dances by groups in Ancient Greece (including the Korybants) and elsewhere.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin crotalum, from Ancient Greek κρόταλον (krotalon, "clapper, castanet, rattle").

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Examples

  • I have, indeed, to some extent gone with strange women, but I have not delayed over long in taverns to watch the young Syrians dance to the sound of the crotalum.

    Penguin Island 1909

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