Definition of "minstrelsy"

minstrelsy

noun
countable and uncountable, plural minstrelsies
1. The musical and other art and craft of a minstrel.
  Quotations
  Orfeo makes his way into this palace, and so charms the king with his minstrelsy, that he gives him back his wife.
  1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 86
  They, of course, would change, but not again could she; henceforth no music for her in the Bush birds' minstrelsy, no pleasure in rivalry with buttercups for the butterflies' kiss.
  1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 186
2. A group of minstrels.
3. Any similar modern group performing song and verse.
4. A collection of minstrel ballads.