work song

noun

: a song sung in rhythm with work

Examples of work song in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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As tensions swell, various cast members sing a medley of slave work songs, blues tunes, and Negro spirituals, creating a tug of war between the past and present as the characters seek to commune with ancestral spirits. Kalia Richardson, Rolling Stone, 29 Nov. 2024 For those who are unaware of what a sea shanty is, its a type of work song that were sung to the beat of rhythmical labor on large merchant ships. Rania Aniftos, Billboard, 21 Jan. 2021 Thursday’s concert will do the same, highlighting Scottish work songs. Beth Wood, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Jan. 2024 The program embraces both classic and contemporary music and touches on work songs, folk songs, blues, traditional synagogue music, gospel music, funk, hip-hop and symphonic music, and a slew of other genres. Maggie Menderski, The Courier-Journal, 8 Jan. 2024 There were work songs, through which incarcerated people could occupy their voices and their minds while their bodies toiled. Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, 2 Oct. 2023 Born out of Black American communities, traditional African storytelling, Caribbean music and work songs from the period of enslavement, rap made its way into the Korean music scene in the 1990s, shortly after the American music industry began its hip-hop feeding frenzy. Zoe Glasser, Washington Post, 22 July 2023 Long before the conversation around Black incarceration and prison reform, Belafonte recorded an album of chain gang work songs such as the jailor classic co-penned by folk musicologist Alan Lomax, along with Vera Hall, John Lomax, and Ruby Pickens Tartt. A.d. Amorosi, Variety, 25 Apr. 2023 The whole hour is just this sort of chilling: percussive work songs, big-bottomed gospel, moaning blues, dramatically spare sets that imply segregation and incarceration, the weather system that called herself Odetta. Wesley Morris, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1841, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of work song was in 1841

Dictionary Entries Near work song

Cite this Entry

“Work song.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/work%20song. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.

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