Dictionary

come-all-you en · NOUN

Etymology

From the common occurrence in such songs of an exhortation beginning "come all you".

Meanings

1. (Ireland) A traditional folk or country song.
   • He slapped his thighs and whooped and catcalled, encouraging anyone who knew it to join in the ‘traditional come-all-you’! 2006, Patrick McCabe, Winterwood, Bloomsbury, published 2007, page 3:
   • He had little turns for it, grace notes that he used to put in that I haven’t got. That was the boy who could sing a come-all-you, if you like. 1916, James Joyce, chapter II, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC:

Forms