jukebox

[jook-boks] /ˈdʒukˌbɒks/
noun
1.
a coin-operated phonograph, typically in a gaudy, illuminated cabinet, having a variety of records that can be selected by push button.
Also called juke.
Origin
1915-20; juke (joint) + box1
Examples from the web for jukebox
  • Rock dust on the green felt, cowboy ballads on the jukebox.
  • They ponder the selections in their table-top jukebox.
  • Then there were slot machines and a jukebox business and an ice-cream parlour.
  • In the culture of the jukebox, even the piano seemed old-fashioned.
  • Juke decides that everyone should chill out-he'll play the jukebox, they'll all get down.
  • Horse steak was advertised on the wall, a jukebox played, the other customers occasionally erupted into drunken shouting.
  • The owner of the teenage hangout finally had to unplug the jukebox because it got to be too much for some people.
  • Almost every cell phone doubles as a jukebox these days.
  • Enjoy a draft at this place and enjoy the killer jukebox.
  • The trim little dining room is bright and pleasant, though a jukebox blares impossibly loud music.
British Dictionary definitions for jukebox

jukebox

/ˈdʒuːkˌbɒks/
noun
1.
a coin-operated machine, usually found in pubs, clubs, etc, that contains records, CDs, or videos, which are played when selected by a customer
Word Origin
C20: from Gullah juke bawdy (as in juke house brothel) + box1
Word Origin and History for jukebox
n.

1937, jook organ, from jook joint "roadhouse" (1935), Black English slang, from juke, joog "wicked, disorderly," in Gullah (the creolized English of the coastlands of South Carolina, Georgia, and northern Florida), probably from Wolof and Bambara dzug "unsavory." Said to have originated in central Florida (see "A Note on Juke," Florida Review, vol. VII, no. 3, spring 1938). The spelling with a -u- might represent a deliberate attempt to put distance between the word and its origins.

For a long time the commercial juke trade resisted the name juke box and even tried to raise a big publicity fund to wage a national campaign against it, but "juke box" turned out to be the biggest advertising term that could ever have been invented for the commercial phonograph and spread to the ends of the world during the war as American soldiers went abroad but remembered the juke boxes back home. ["Billboard," Sept. 15, 1945]

Slang definitions & phrases for jukebox

jukebox

noun

A coin-operated record player in a restaurant, bar, etc (1930s+)


jukebox in Technology

hardware, storage
A hardware mechanism for allowing access to one of a group of discs, especially CD-ROMs or other optical media.
[Or magnetic tapes?]
(1996-12-10)