The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Minstrel \Min"strel\, n. [OE. minstrel, menestral, OF.
   menestrel, fr. LL. ministerialis servant, workman (cf.
   ministrellus harpist), fr. L. ministerium service. See
   Ministry, and cf. Ministerial.]
   In the Middle Ages, one of an order of men who subsisted by
   the arts of poetry and music, and sang verses to the
   accompaniment of a harp or other instrument; in modern times,
   a poet; a bard; a singer and harper; a musician. --Chaucer.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

minstrel
    n 1: a singer of folk songs [syn: folk singer, jongleur,
         minstrel, poet-singer, troubadour]
    2: a performer in a minstrel show
    v 1: celebrate by singing, in the style of minstrels

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

94 Moby Thesaurus words for "minstrel":
   Broadway musical, Meistersinger, Parnassian, Singspiel, arch-poet,
   artist, artiste, ballad maker, ballad opera, ballad singer,
   balladeer, balladist, balladmonger, ballet, ballet divertissement,
   bard, beat poet, bucoliast, chorus show, comedy ballet,
   comic opera, concert artist, dance drama, elegist, epic poet,
   executant, fili, folk singer, folk-rock singer, gleeman,
   grand opera, idyllist, imagist, interpreter, jongleur, laureate,
   librettist, light opera, lyric drama, maestro, major poet, maker,
   minnesinger, minor poet, minstrel show, minstrelsy, modernist,
   music drama, music maker, musical, musical comedy, musical stage,
   musical theater, musician, occasional poet, odist, opera,
   opera ballet, opera bouffe, opera buffa, operetta, pastoral poet,
   pastoralist, performer, player, poet, poet laureate, poetress,
   rhapsode, rhapsodist, satirist, scald, scop, serenader, singer,
   skald, soloist, song-and-dance act, song-play, sonneteer,
   street singer, strolling minstrel, symbolist, troubador,
   troubadour, trouveur, trovatore, tunester, vers libriste,
   vers-librist, virtuosa, virtuoso, wait, wandering minstrel



Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Minstrel
   (Matt. 9:23), a flute-player. Such music was a usual
   accompaniment of funerals. In 2 Kings 3:15 it denotes a player
   on a stringed instrument.


The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

MINSTREL, adj.  Formerly a poet, singer or musician; now a nigger with
a color less than skin deep and a humor more than flesh and blood can
bear.