Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use minstrel in a sentence

18 example sentences · noun, verb

Minstrel means originally, an entertainer employed to juggle, play music, sing, tell stories, etc.; a buffoon, a fool, a jester; later, a medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment. Example: “Between courses, the banqueters were entertained by minstrels in medieval garb.”

Examples of minstrel by meaning

nounOriginally, an entertainer employed to juggle, play music, sing, tell stories, etc.; a buffoon, a fool, a jester...

  • The hero of the verses, Adam Glen, who composed the air to which they are sung, was a well-known wandering minstrel, long a favourite in every farmer's ha', village, and fair, in the west of Angus, and in eastern Forfarshire.1901, “Pawkie Adam Glen”, in Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland: With Many Old and Familiar Melodies […] (Second...

nounOne of a troupe of entertainers, often a white person who wore black makeup (blackface), to present a so-called...

  • Songs and conjuring and a play called "Box and Cox," very amusing, and a lot of throwing things about in it—bacon and chops and things—and nigger minstrels.1904, E[dith] Nesbit, “(please specify the page)”, in New Treasure Seekers, London: Ernest Benn, →OCLC

nounAn amphetamine tablet, typically black, or black and white, in colour.

  • Lacking food, Jimmy reverts to his “minstrels'” — speed — and in a paranoia of drugs and near-starvation the pair fall out.2008, Julian Evans, Semi-Invisible Man: The Life of Norman Lewis, page 510
  • Harry tipped the contents of Billy's bag on to his desk: boosters, purple hearts, black bombers, French blues, nigger minstrels spilled out, popping across the desk like jumping beans.2018, J. L. Walker, Jump and Dance, page 151

More sentences with minstrel

  • Between courses, the banqueters were entertained by minstrels in medieval garb.From the entry banqueter
  • A minstrel was ushered in with his clàrsach by one of the servers and given a chair.2022, Roma Cordon, Bewitching a Highlander, CamCat Publishing, LLC, →ISBN. From the entry clàrsach
  • Thankfully, it's a rare in-person performance today that features a white actor made up as a minstrel.2017 August 11, Molly Roberts, “What white people missed about FaceApp’s ‘blackface’ filters”, in The Washington Post, page A.17. From the entry digital blackface
  • Against the glacial backdrop he looked like a lost minstrel who'd taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque.2008, Paul Beatty, Slumberland, page 158. From the entry take a wrong turn at Albuquerque
  • As a boy, Sandburg was thrilled by the circus, the chautauqua, the minstrel show, the theater.1988 June 10, James Krohe Jr., “Reading: Sandburg and Steichen”, in Chicago Reader, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2016. From the entry chautauqua
  • White Chicks deploys a "reverse" minstrel show technique.2012, George Yancy, Look, A White!: Philosophical Essays on Whiteness, →ISBN, page 111. From the entry white up
  • One of the most popular was Harry Lauder, whose persona as a bekilted Scots vaudeville minstrel was instantly recognized world-wide.2002, Aviel Roshwald, Richard Stites, editors, European Culture in the Great War: The Arts, Entertainment and Propaganda, 1914-1918…. From the entry bekilted
  • Among the most popular forms of theatrical entertainment in the nineteenth-century American theatre were the blackfaced minstrel troupes.1996, Barry Witham, Theatre in the United States - A Documentary History, page 160. From the entry blackfaced
  • White entertainers like Eddie Cantor (left) cashed in on the blackenization of White America by imitating Black minstrels in blackface.1980, Louie Robinson, "The Blackening of White America", Ebony, May 1980, page 162 (image caption). From the entry blackenization
  • At the same time a wandering minstrel named W.1918, A History of Indiana: From 1850 to the present, page 1101. From the entry typomania
  • Laffey is a member of the Acetaria Circle of the Kearny High School, which recently gave a minstrel show.1903 June 7, “Blood Poisoned by ‘Make-up.’ […]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC. From the entry grease paint
  • The five others nearby likewise made ready to serve as invocators—instruments and voices harrumphing as would a body of minstrels in preparation for some performance.2007, Gary Gygax, The Anubis Murders, →ISBN, page 21. From the entry invocator
  • It was the earliest brick-constructed house of its size in Shropshire, and is complete with minstrels' gallery, ornate chimneystacks, and vast fireplaces.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 102. From the entry minstrels' gallery
  • When the tenth frame, i.e., cigars, etc., was reached, the Senegambian minstrels of Merrydom cut loose with a flock of choice songs.1907, The Plumbers Trade Journal, volume 41, page 464. From the entry merrydom

Meaning of minstrel

  1. noun Originally, an entertainer employed to juggle, play music, sing, tell stories, etc.; a buffoon, a fool, a jester; later, a medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment.
  2. noun Any lyric poet, musician, or singer.
  3. noun One of a troupe of entertainers, often a white person who wore black makeup (blackface), to present a so-called minstrel show, being a variety show of banjo music, dance, and song (now regarded as racist).

Full definition of minstrel

Questions about minstrel in a sentence

How do you use minstrel in a sentence?
Minstrel is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Between courses, the banqueters were entertained by minstrels in medieval garb.”
What is a short sentence with minstrel?
“White Chicks deploys a "reverse" minstrel show technique.”
What does minstrel mean?
Minstrel means originally, an entertainer employed to juggle, play music, sing, tell stories, etc.; a buffoon, a fool, a jester; later, a medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: minstrel (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use minstrel in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/minstrel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.