▪ I. concertina, n.
(kɒnsəˈtiːnə)
[f. concert, with fem. ending -ina, as in seraphina, etc.]
1. A portable musical instrument invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1829, consisting of a pair of bellows, usually polygonal in form, with a set of keys at each end, which on being pressed admit wind to free metallic reeds.
(Often improperly applied to inferior instruments of similar nature, as the accordion, which has a single keyboard, sounds notes in one key only, and produces different notes on expanding and compressing the bellows.)
| 1837 Musical World 12 May V. 135 Master Regondi's performance on the Concertina at several concerts lately has made a sensation. 1844 Wheatstone Specif. Patent No. 10,041, p. 2 This musical instrument has since [date of patent in 1829] been termed the concertina. 1854 Illust. Lond. News 29 July 99/3 Concertinas of a new description..the same as those supplied to Signor Giulio Regondi, Mr. Richard Blagrove, and other eminent Professors of this fashionable instrument. 1889 Pall Mall G. 2 Feb. 3/1 What most people imagine to be a concertina is nothing of the kind, but simply a double accordion..capable only of reproducing a very limited number of sounds. |
2. War slang. In full concertina wire. (See quots.)
| 1919 War Terms in Athenæum 15 Aug. 759/1 Concertina, collapsible wire entanglement. 1930 Blunden Poems 40 The sappers' waggons stowed with frames and concertina wire. 1965 Brophy & Partridge Long Trail ii. 104 Concertina Wire, wire used for entanglements; when touched, it coiled about the intruder. |
3. attrib. and Comb.
| 1902 How to make Things 20/1 A collapsing or concertina-like box. 1912 W. Owen Let. 23 Mar. (1967) 126 Concertina-practice fills up intervals. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 226 A concertina skirt. 1935 C. Isherwood Mr. Norris xii. 205 My glance wandered away to..the soft, snout-like nose, the concertina chin. 1964 Times 11 Feb. 11/6 The recent ‘concertina’ crashes on the M 1 and M 6. |
Hence concerˈtinist, a player on the concertina.
| 1880 Daily Tel. 7 Sept., The concertinist is..the best masthead man of the fleet. |
▪ II. concerˈtina, v.
[f. the n.]
trans. and intr. To shut up like a concertina; to compress; to collapse; to wrinkle. Also fig.
| 1906 Daily Chron. 11 June 7/3 Another blow from a stick on the right ‘concertinaed’ my hat. 1907 W. J. Locke Beloved Vagabond ix. 112 ‘It makes one talk unmentionable imbecility.’ He just missed concertina-ing the last two words. 1908 Kipling Diversity of Creatures (1917) 251 Then Beetle, concertinaing his books, observed to Winton, ‘When King's really on tap he's an interestin' dog.’ 1928 Daily Express 1 June 5/2 When closed the trellis work ‘concertinas’ into a very small space. 1945 Salt 26 Feb. 14 Moleskins which conertina-ed around his fetlocks. 1946 C. Fry Phoenix too Freq. 46 Would you consider we go round and round?.. We concertina, I think, taking each time A larger breath, so that the farther we go out The farther we have to go in. 1953 J. Masters Lotus & Wind iii. 38 He saw that the force had concertinaed to a halt. 1963 Nabokov Gift iv. 266 From beneath the overcoat his black trousers concertinaed over his rubbers. |
Hence concerˈtinaed ppl. a., closed or folded in a manner resembling a concertina; wrinkled; collapsed.
| 1905 Westm. Gaz. 4 July 6/3 A concertinaed opera-hat. 1916 H. G. Wells Mr. Britling iii. §4 Fold after fold of concertina-ed flannel gathered about his ankles. 1962 Listener 8 Mar. 435/2 His concertina-ed syntax is more dutiful than magical. |