A grandfather clock is a tall standing clock with a long pendulum. Wind the grandfather clock.
The case is tall because the pendulum is about a metre long, which gives a swing of one second. The grandfather clock took its name from a popular song of 1876 and was called a longcase clock before that.
1noungrandfather clockA tall standing clock with a long pendulum.
“The grandfather clock in the hall was two minutes fast for thirty years.”
grandfather clock is a clock.
From the song Grandfather's Clock of 1876, written about a clock in a hotel in County Durham.
From an 1876 song, Grandfather's Clock, by American songwriter Henry Work, based on a clock in the George Hotel in Piercebridge, County Durham, England, which stopped keeping time after its owner died.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
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