mandolin

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small plucked string instrument of the lute family, usually with four paired courses tuned like a violin

   She played the folk melody on a bowl-backed mandolin.

2. 2
   noun

   a variant spelling of mandoline, a kitchen tool with an adjustable blade for slicing food thinly

   He used a mandolin to cut the potatoes into even translucent slices.

Borrowed through French mandoline from Italian mandolino, diminutive of mandola, a larger lute-family instrument. The kitchen-tool sense is usually spelled mandoline and arose by comparison between rapid slicing and the player's repeated hand motion.

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