Definition of "viol" []

• Any of a family of stringed instruments, chiefly of the 16th and 17th centuries, having a fretted fingerboard, usually six strings, and a flat back and played with a curved bow. (noun)
• See viola da gamba. (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.

• "The tastefulness of his treble viol playing and the more resonant, lower lyra viol is fetching, and his rhythmic liveliness is always in evidence, but 28 dances are slightly too much of a very good thing."
• "The ensembles and the label are each the responsibility of Mr. Savall, a trained cellist, who has turned a youthful curiosity about the viola da gamba — an antique stringed instrument combining aspects of the cello and guitar, alternatively known as the viol — into a pan-musical enterprise."
• "Anyway, on that song he played something called a viol, which has a mandolin-type sound."