Definition of "timbrel" [tim•brel]

• An ancient percussion instrument similar to a tambourine. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It was beat with the fingers, and corresponds to our tambourine. all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances -- We shall understand this by attending to the modern customs of the East, where the dance -- a slow, grave, and solemn gesture, generally accompanied with singing and the sound of the timbrel, is still led by the principal female of the company, the rest imitating her movements and repeating the words of the song as they drop from her lips."
• "Their sackbut was something like a bagpipe; the timbrel was a tambourine; and the dulcimer, a horizontal harp with wire strings, and struck with a stick like the psaltery. ""
• "The toph, an instrument of the drum kind, rendered "timbrel" (Ex. 15: 20;"