From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishminstrelmin‧strel /ˈmɪnstrəl/ noun [countable] 1 APMa singer or musician in the Middle Ages2 APone of a group of white singers and dancers who pretended to be black while performing in popular shows in the 1920s
Examples from the Corpus
minstrel• His minstrel songs led many people to insist he must be a southerner.• Others showed beaming brides and grooms, looking, thanks to the copying process, like black-faced riverboat minstrels.• You recall what that minstrel told us some weeks back, Ralf?• One of the minstrels strummed his banjo.• The minstrel stopped singing abruptly, and went outside.• The minstrels paraded out in the same boisterous way they had come in.• For ten minutes he becomes a wandering minstrel, illuminated by the bass-player following him with a torch from the stage.Origin minstrel (1200-1300) Old French menestrel “servant, minstrel”, from Latin minister; → MINISTER1 