air guitarn.
/ˈɛː ɡᵻˌtɑː/, U.S. /ˌɛr ɡəˈtɑr/ Originally U.S.
An imaginary guitar ‘played’ by miming esp. to rock music.
ΚΠ
1980 Hartford (Connecticut) Courant 24 Apr. 2/5 (caption) Roy Charette displays his prize-winning form at playing the ‘air’ guitar. The guitar, you see, isn't really there.
1980 Mountain Democrat (Placerville, Calif.) 19 Dec. a6/1 The fans whip out their air guitars to catch all of Mick Taylor's licks.
1982 N.Y. Times 21 Feb. xxiii. 15/4 (heading) Her performance almost convinces the audience that she holds a real guitar and not a tennis racquet... ‘Air guitar’, the art of miming musical performances, has caught on around the country. A New Haven nightclub..held the Connecticut air-guitar championships.
1995 Guardian 30 June (Friday Review section) 18/1 Whole venues full of people..playing air guitar and moving their heads in an exaggerated side-to-side motion.
2002 D. Aitkenhead Promised Land xiii. 139 We did our best to look impressed, but really it was just Armien, standing outside a shed, playing air-guitar on an imaginary AK-47.
Derivatives
ˈair guitarist n.
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1980 Hartford (Connecticut) Courant 24 Apr. 2/3 Hayden and his station organized and sponsored the contest to choose the best ‘air guitarist’.
1981 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 14 Aug. Air guitarists do these movements like they're playing imaginary guitars.
1982 N.Y. Times 21 Feb. xxiii. 1/3 The art of ‘air guitarists’.
2000 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 7 Jan. 3/3 Every air guitarist knows the riff—dah, DAH, da-da-DAH, da-dah dah—and anyone who has ever been a teenager can relate to the lyrics.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
air guitarv.
/ˈɛː ɡᵻˌtɑː/, U.S. /ˈɛr ɡəˌtɑr/ Originally U.S.
1. intransitive. To mime the action of playing a guitar, esp. to a recording or performance of rock music. Cf. air guitar n.
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1983 J. McKenna & M. Moffitt Compl. Air Guitar Handbk. xii. 49 (caption) Neil Young air guitars with Joni Mitchell and Robbie Robertson in The Last Waltz.
1990 Surfer Aug. 62 Martin Potter..air guitaring and lip-synching to the Aerosmith Run/DMC version of Walk This Way.
2003 Bang Apr. 13/1 The former Spacemen 3 leader nearly knocks his pint over while air-guitaring.
2. transitive. To mime the action of playing (music) on a guitar.
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1994 Toronto Sun 17 Sept. 40/2 Cocker knew the arrangements so well that on occasion he would start air-guitaring a solo a few beats before his guitarist started picking.
1999 J. Cahill Guy walks into Psychiatrist's Office (HBO TV shooting script) 42 (stage direct.) in Sopranos 2nd Ser. (O.E.D. Archive) He drums the wheel, air-guitars the heavy riffs.
2006 Denver Post (Nexis) 17 Nov. ff7 We had fans go and upload to YouTube their videos of them..air guitaring the song.
Derivatives
air guiˈtaring n.
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1983 J. McKenna & M. Moffitt Compl. Air Guitar Handbk. v. 26 We feel the only pants to wear for heavy-duty air guitaring are jeans.
2002 Billboard 31 Aug. 22/5 Solos..that will surely inspire much air-guitaring and air-drumming.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1980v.1983