From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishoboeo‧boe /ˈəʊbəʊ $ ˈoʊboʊ/ noun [countable] APMa wooden musical instrument like a narrow tube, which you play by blowing air through a reed —oboist noun [countable]
Examples from the Corpus
oboe• He was a nice chap called Roland who entertained us with such finesse on his flute and oboe.• A Congress of Passions was written in 1994 for counter-tenor, piano and oboe.• The strings unfold a sequence of shivery chords, and voice and oboe briefly entwine before the singer is left in solitude.• You can not imagine the glorious effect of a symphony with flutes, oboes and clarinets.• There is more dicey woodwind intonation in the Eroica, and the oboe tone in the Funeral March curdles alarmingly.• The oboe tends to lose power and body in its upper register, but with the clarinet the opposite is the case.Origin oboe (1600-1700) Italian French hautbois, from haut “high” + bois “wood” 