Meaning of dueling banjos | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A contest of skill in which two people try to top each other's offerings, especially one involving musical ability.
   plural, plural-only
2. Something typical of a stereotypic hillbilly; Something characterized by lack of education, poverty, inbreeding or lack of sophistication.
   plural, plural-only

Examples

“The current discussion of choice in education has been driven by this dueling banjos mentality in which scholars and other intellectual entrepreneurs compete for public and intellectual attention by describing the conditions they want to create.”

“Their tools were computers and when three or four engineers surrounded a car and plugged in, the scene wasn't dueling banjos. It was dueling laptops.”

“The nurse's fingers are pressing dental dough into my lower incisors, and she and the doctor are playing dueling banjos with funny stories about their kids, when in walks another dentist, dropping by to say hello.”

“Stick to music that has lots of harmony, and if you ever meet your mirror image, don't try to out-pick him and don't take him grouse hunting. It becomes dueling banjos.”

“The name "Appalachia" evokes a host of popular images and stereotypes: feuds, individualism, moonshine, subsistence farming, quilting bees, illiteracy, and dueling banjos, to name just a few.”

“My family at times seem to think they are aristocrats, at other times I swear I can hear the muffled sound of dueling banjos.”

““Corn and soybeans are the dueling banjos of conventional agriculture that amount to little more than subsidized erosion,” says Thicke, laughing at his own critique.”

“Anyway, Eric kept humming some dueling banjos song and talking about people who marry their first cousins.”

CEFR level