barrel-and-pin

adjective

bar·​rel-and-pin

: having or consisting of a rotating cylinder studded with pins or pegs and used in a mechanical musical instrument (such as a music box, barrel organ, or barrel piano) to activate the instrument's sound-producing mechanism

… there is the spring, which pumps the little bellows and works the little barrel-and-pin device that releases the air into the pipes that make the whistle.

—Robertson Davies, World of Wonders, 1975

Word History

First Known Use

1944, in the meaning defined above

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