Dictionary

organ grinder en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈɔːɡən ˌɡɹaɪndə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (US) audio
• /ˈɔɹɡən ˌɡɹaɪndəɹ/ (General-American)

Etymology

From the repetitive grinding involved in playing a barrel organ. In figurative senses, from the common 19th-century practice of training monkeys to dance to an organ grinder's music in order to perform on the street and solicit donations and spare change.

Meanings

1. The player of a barrel organ.
   • There is one beautiful sight in the East End, and only one, and it is the children dancing in the street when the organ-grinder goes his round. 1903 October, Jack London, chapter XXIII, in The People of the Abyss, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
   • “You should read Spanish,” he said. “It is a noble tongue. It has not the mellifluousness of Italian, Italian is the language of tenors and organ-grinders, but it has grandeur: it does not ripple like a brook in a garden, but it surges tumultuous like a mighty river in flood.” 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXXVI, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:
   • Those who cannot play any instrument wheel a gramophone through the streets on a barrow, but the largest number of these street musicians are organ grinders. 1929, George Orwell, “Beggars in London”, in An Inquiry into “Civic Progress” in England:
   • Thus the vision of humanity appeared to be in some way connected with Bloomsbury, and faded distinctly by the time she crossed the main road; then a belated organ-grinder in Holborn set her thoughts dancing incongruously; […] 1919 October 20, Virginia Woolf, Night and Day, London: Duckworth and Company […], →OCLC:
   • The organ-grinders were at work; but they were always precocious harbingers. It was near enough spring for them to go penny-hunting when the skating ball dropped at the park. 1903–1906, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “The Easter of the Soul”, in The Voice of the City, complete edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, published 1908, →OCLC, page 141:
2. (figuratively) The person who is in charge, rather than a lackey or representative; the person truly responsible for another's actions.
   • I want to speak to the organ grinder, not the monkey.

Forms

Deriveds

the organ grinder, not the monkey

Synonyms

the organ grinder, not the monkey · barrel organist

Translations (10)

ru шарма́нщик (player of a barrel organ) · hu kintornás (player of a barrel organ) · pl kataryniarz (player of a barrel organ) · de Drehorgelspieler (player of a barrel organ) · pl katarynkarz (player of a barrel organ) · fi posetiivari (player of a barrel organ) · de Leierkastenmann (player of a barrel organ) · pl szef (person who is in charge, rather than a lackey or representative) · pl szefowa (person who is in charge, rather than a lackey or representative) · fi pomo (person who is in charge, rather than a lackey or representative)