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a Russian musical instrument having a triangular body and a neck like that of a guitar.
Historical Examples

The women played one after the other on the balalaika, and then sang in chorus.
Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, &c. Xavier Hommaire de Hell

The sound of music came from somewhere outside, notes of the balalaika.
The Secret of the Night Gaston Leroux

balalaika, a musical instrument of very ancient Slavonic origin, common among the Russians and Tartars.
The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 3 Various

Rouletabille listened to the voice dying away with the last sob of the balalaika.
The Secret of the Night Gaston Leroux

One of the children played a balalaika and sang in a broken, mournful voice that did not at all belong to her age.
Trapped in ‘Black Russia’ Ruth Pierce

Here Mongalov reached for his balalaika, a sort of Russian mandolin, and began to play some gay Russian airs on it.
Our Little Cossack Cousin F. A. Postnikov

And from every saddle dangled a balalaika and the terrible Cossack whip.
The Crimson Tide Robert W. Chambers

The porter Yermolay passed him with his balalaika, glanced at him and shrugged his shoulders.
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories Anton Chekhov

The “balalaika Orchestra,” by the way, was a minor sign of the Russian invasion already at its height.
Mr. Punch’s History of Modern England Vol. IV of IV. Charles L. Graves

noun
a plucked musical instrument, usually having a triangular body and three strings: used chiefly for Russian folk music
n.

stringed instrument with a triangular body, 1788, from Russian balalaika, said to be related to balabolit’ “to chatter, babble,” an imitative word.