heavy metal
Meanings
noun
- Any metal that has a specific gravity greater than about 5, especially one, such as lead, that is poisonous and may be a hazard in the environment. (There are many different definitions of what counts as a heavy metal; see Heavy metals for a discussion.)
- A genre descended from rock music, characterized by the use of emphatic drumbeats, highly amplified distortion, and overall loudness; often featuring extended instrumental solos and powerful vocals.
- The first form of metal music, which arose in the late 1960s and the 1970s, and is closer to the rock music of the time than most other subgenres of metal.
- Guns or shot of large size.
- Great influence or power.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
According to the Oxford World's Classics edition of Anthony Trollope's Rachel Ray (1863), "big guns," as on a warship. The origin of the music genre sense is often disputed; it was used by William S. Burroughs in Soft Machine and Nova Express and various music critics claim to have coined it: Sandy Pearlman, Lester Bangs and Mike Saunders.
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This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.