1. A street band in Mexico.
2. 1. The music performed by such a band.
   2. A musician belonging to such a band.

[American Spanish, perhaps from French mariage, marriage (so called because the music may have originated at weddings in Jalisco, a state of west-central Mexico). See marriage.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.