tra-la

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tra-la

(ˌtrɑːˈlɑː) or

tra-la-la

(Music, other) a set of nonsensical syllables used in humming music, esp for a melody or refrain

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun

tra-la - a set of nonsensical syllables used while humming a refrain

tra-la-la

refrain, chorus - the part of a song where a soloist is joined by a group of singers

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References in classic literature ?

On the strength of a batting average of thirty-three point nought seven for Middlesex, he had been engaged by the astute musical-comedy impresario to whom the idea first occurred that, if you have got to have young men to chant 'We are merry and gay, tra-la, for this is Bohemia,' in the Artists' Ball scene, you might just as well have young men whose names are known to the public.

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And between 1958 and 1963, the Tra-La man sold 40 million records.

A piano was all Sedaka needed; REVIEW: Neil Sedaka at St David's Hall, Cardiff ?????....

Hooray, too, for TV lead characters' penchant for miraculous survival and recovery, because the series' postscript showed both Angelo and Claudia alive and none the worse for wear-and the show's good guys predictably forgave the suitably remorseful bad eggs, tra-la!

Anticlimactic finale

Oh, no tra-la, tra-la, 'tis only the couch of a laundress!'' So did the great Gladys George, as Madame du Barry, bristle during her opening scene in 1938's lavish MGM epic, "Marie Antoinette.''