Rubato

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Rubato \Ru*ba"to\, a. [It.]
     Robbed; borrowed.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Temple rubato}. [It.] (Mus.) Borrowed time; -- a term
        applied to a style of performance in which some tones are


        held longer than their legitimate time, while others are
        proportionally curtailed.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  rubato
       n : a flexible tempo; not strictly on the beat