[ad. It. trombone ‘a bace or great sackbut, a great trump’ (Florio, 1598), also, a blunderbuss, augmentative of tromba trumpet. Cf. F. trombon (16th c. in Godef.).]
1. Mus. A large loud-toned brass instrument of the trumpet kind, consisting of a long tube bent twice upon itself, and ending in a bell mouth; the U-shaped bend nearer the mouth-piece is of double telescoping tubes, sliding upon one another, so that the length of the sounding tube may be adjusted to produce the desired note.
It is also made with valves and pistons instead of the slide (valve-trombone).
1724. Short Explic. For. Wds. Mus. Bks., Trombone, a very Large or Bass Trumpet, though more properly a Sackbut.
1813. Examiner, 10 May, 303/2. Every violin, bassoon, and trombone.
1856. Mrs. C. Clarke, trans. Berlioz’ Instrument., 151. There are four kinds of trombones, each of which bears the name of the human voice to which it bears the nearest resemblance in quality of tone and compass.
1881. Broadhouse, Mus. Acoustics, 234. The Trumpet … and the Trombone its natural bass.
1889. W. H. Stone, in Grove, Dict. Mus., IV. 176. In A.D. 1520 there was a well-known Posaunenmacher named Hans Menschel, who made slide Trombones as good as, or perhaps better, than those of the present time.
1892. Symonds, Life Michel Angelo (1899), II. xi. 65. A sense-deafening solo on a trombone.
attrib. 1886. Academy, 16 Oct., 267/1. Why … are Handel’s trombone parts persistently ignored?
1893. B. Abbotsford, But, vii. 40. The ‘it’ [man] with the trombone voice.
1906. Kropotkin, Mem. Revolutionist (1908), I. viii. 47. Behind each one of us a violinist or a trombone player stands.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 23 July, 4/2. It does not concern them whether the [motor-engine] cylinders are as big as beer-barrels, or the stroke as elongated as a trombone-slide.
b. One who plays this instrument.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxxi. An artful trombone lurks and dodges round the corner.
c. A reed-stop in the organ of similar tone.
1837. Stranger’s Guide York (ed. 6), 78. Trombone … Wood open diapason.
ǁ 2. pl. tromboni. = BLUNDERBUSS 1.
1754. Richardson, Grandison (ed. 7), III. 258. I beat down his Trombone, a kind of Blunderbuss, just as he presented it at me.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxi. When we came up, we fired our tromboni, but missed. Ibid. (1797), Italian, xxi. He fired his trombone in the air, when every rock reverberated the sound.
1843. Borrow, Bible in Spain, xxxiii. He then discharged his trombone just over my head.
Hence Trombonist, = 1 b; Trombony a. colloq., pertaining to or characterized by the trombone.
1829. Observer, 5 April, 2/3. M. Schmidt, first Trombonist to the Duke of Brunswick, will perform a Concerto on the Trombone, his first appearance in this country.
1891. Cent. Dict., *Trombonist.
1897. Weekly Sun, 19 Sept., 3/4. A trombonist in our tontine band.
1908. Times, 8 July, 7/2. Herr Steidl … showed us how a trombonist and a clarinetist ought to be educated.
1899. A. Layard, Musical Bogeys, 44. The *Trombony Bogey is terribly thin.
1913. Daily News, 6 Sept., 6. The Prelude to Act III of ‘Lohengrin’ … is a tromboney piece of music.
