accordion
verb
- to compress in a zigzagged series of folds, like an accordion
noun
- portable free-reed instrument with a mechanical keyboard under each hand, manipulated by the fingers to select pitches
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /əˈkɔː.diː.ən/ / [əˈkɔː.dɪi̯.ən] ~ [əˈkɔː.dɪi̯.n̩] / /əˈkoɹ.di.ən/
noun
Etymology: Etymology tree Vulgar Latin *accordāre Old French acorder Middle French accorder French accorderdeverb. French accordbor. German Akkord German -ion German Akkordeonbor. English accordion First attested in 1831. Borrowed from German Akkordeon, from Akkord (“harmony”), from French accord, from Old French acorder, based on Italian accordare (“to tune”). See also accord.
- A box-shaped musical instrument played by compressing or expanding its bellows while pressing its buttons or its keys, causing pallets to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel (reeds).
“A disreputable accordion that had a leak somewhere and breathed louder than it squawked.”
- A vertical list of items that can be individually expanded and collapsed to reveal their contents.
- Something, or set of things (concepts, etc), which can be expanded (or extended) and collapsed, like the musical instrument's pleated, folding bellows.
“See also: telescoping”
“"Accordion" skirts are named from the musical instrument of that title, because the peculiar plaiting draws out and falls together again, in the same kind of folds, and with the same effect.”
verb
Etymology: Etymology tree Vulgar Latin *accordāre Old French acorder Middle French accorder French accorderdeverb. French accordbor. German Akkord German -ion German Akkordeonbor. English accordion First attested in 1831. Borrowed from German Akkordeon, from Akkord (“harmony”), from French accord, from Old French acorder, based on Italian accordare (“to tune”). See also accord.
- To fold up, in the manner of an accordion
“I slit the wrapping with my pocketknife and the clothesline accordioned out in stiff loops.”
“Still in reverse, she goosed the gas and accordioned the running board a fraction of an inch more.”