Spinet
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A short, compact harpsichord or piano.
"He gazed around until on the lid of a spinet he spotted a promising collection of bottles, gin, whiskey, vermouth and sherry, mixed with violin bows, a flute, a toppling pile of books, six volumes of Grove's Dictionary mingled with paperback thrillers, a guitar without any strings, a pair of binoculars, a meerschaum pipe and a jar half-full of wasps and apricot jam."
- 2 A spinney. obsolete
"The invention was to have a Satyr lodged in a little spinet, by which her majesty and the prince were to come"
- 3 early model harpsichord with only one string per note wordnet
- 4 a small and compactly built upright piano wordnet
Example
More examples"Anyone who has never strung a spinet, clavichord, or harpsichord cannot imagine what kinds of problems can arise, from the choice of strings, to the actual stretching of the strings until they are tuned."
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian spinetta.
From Latin spīnētum. Doublet of spinney
Related phrases
More for "spinet"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.