Definition of "hand-organ" [hand-organ]

• A portable barrel-organ, both the barrel and the bellows of which are worked by a hand-crank. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "They could not make these out at first, but as they became louder our friends thought they heard a sort of music like that made by a wheezy hand-organ; the music fell upon their ears in this way:"
• "Born approximately 1325 and blind from boyhood, it was in music that he sought comfort and bliss; he played numerous instruments, foremost the ‘organetto’, the small portable hand-organ which at that time was particularly popular for performing secular music."
• "He went reluctantly behind the curtain and soon reappeared carrying in his arms a small hand-organ, which he put down on the table with an air of deep dejection."