# trombone

/tɹɑmˈboʊn/ (US) · /tɹɒmbˈəʊn/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/trombone
Updated: 2026-08-27

## Senses

### 1. musical instrument

noun · CEFR B1

a large brass musical instrument that you play by blowing into it and moving a long sliding tube to change the notes.

For teachers: a brass instrument consisting of a long cylindrical metal tube with two turns and a telescopic slide that varies the pitch.

- He played the trombone in the school jazz band every Friday night.
- The composer wrote a challenging solo for the tenor trombone, requiring the performer to execute rapid slide positions with perfect intonation.

### 2. lighting support

noun · CEFR C1 · Technical

a metal support used on a film set to hold lights, which can be extended like the musical instrument.

For teachers: an extendable support bracket used for mounting lighting fixtures to a studio grid or set wall.

- The crew attached a heavy lamp to the trombone to light the actor from above.
- The gaffer requested two additional trombones to extend the backlight further over the set without placing stands in the shot.

### 3. to zoom a lens

verb · CEFR C1 · Slang · Informal

to move a camera's zoom lens in and out very quickly or too much.

For teachers: to rapidly and repeatedly adjust a zoom lens; often used pejoratively to describe amateurish or excessive focal length changes.

- The director told the camera operator to stop tromboning the lens during the scene.
- The documentary was criticized for its distracting style, as the cinematographer continued to trombone the lens throughout the emotional interviews.

### 4. to route a signal

verb · CEFR C2 · Technical

to send a signal back to a central point before it goes to its final destination.

For teachers: to route a telecommunications signal back to a central switching point before forwarding it to its ultimate destination.

- The call had to trombone through the main server before reaching the local office.
- Network efficiency decreased significantly because the data packets were forced to trombone through the legacy switch in the headquarters.

## Examples

- The trombone played a loud, scary sound when the villain appeared.
- As soon as the hero walked into the dark alley, the trombone started playing to signal the audience that something bad was about to happen.
- The director used the trombone to create a sense of foreboding, a technique that has become a staple of the horror genre to cue the audience's emotional response to the protagonist's fate.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.