A cheap drinking and dancing establishment; a cheap and tawdry nightclub.
Synonyms:barrelhouse.
2.
A district in which honky-tonks (1) are found.
adjective
honky-tonk adj.
1.
Pertaining to or resembling a honky-tonk.
2.
(Music) Pertaining to a style of ragtime piano music having a melody embellished with chords and syncopated rhythms, accompanied by a bass in strict two-four or four-four time. It is often played on an upright piano having its strings muffled to produce a tinny sound; as, a honky-tonk piano.
... the Players' Studio, Charlie endeavored to further his quest. But the atmosphere seemed, paradoxically enough, a handicap. A free-and-easy atmosphere with men and women in odd-looking rigs sauntering about. The place was as immoral as a honky-tonk. Charlie stared at the young women in smocks and bobbed hair, smoking cigarettes, sitting with their legs showing. They should have been prostitutes but they weren't. Or maybe they were, only he wasn't ... — Erik Dorn • Ben Hecht
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