jazz

[[t]dʒæz[/t]]

n.

1) mad music originating in New Orleans around the beginning of the 20th century and subsequently developing through various increasingly complex styles, generally marked by intricate, propulsive rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, improvisatory, virtuosic solos, melodic freedom, and a harmonic idiom ranging from simple diatonicism through chromaticism to atonality

2) mad a style of dance music marked by some of the features of jazz

3) sts Slang. liveliness; spirit; excitement

4) sts Slang. insincere or pretentious talk

5) cvb sts Slang. similar or related but unspecified things:

We like sightseeing, museums, and all that jazz[/ex]

6) mad to play (music) in the manner of jazz

7) inf sl.

a) to excite or enliven

b) to accelerate

8) inf sl. to act or proceed with great energy or liveliness

9) phv +inf jazz up, Slang.

a) to enliven

b) to embellish

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Etymology: 1910–15, amer.