tune
English
Etymology
From Middle English tune, an unexplained variant of tone[1], borrowed from Old French ton, from Latin tonus, from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “a tone”). Doublet of tone, ton, and tonus.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /tjuːn/, /tʃuːn/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (US) IPA(key): /t(j)un/
Audio (US) (file)
- Rhymes: -uːn
- Homophone: chewn (among those with yod-coalescence in stressed syllables)
Noun
tune (countable and uncountable, plural tunes)
- A melody.
- A song, or short musical composition.
- (informal) The act of tuning or maintenance.
- Your engine needs a good tune.
- The state or condition of being correctly tuned.
- Your engine is now in tune.
- This piano is not in tune.
- (Britain, slang) A very good popular song.
- You heard the new Rizzle Kicks song? —Mate, that is a tune!
- Temper; frame of mind.
- (obsolete) A sound; a note; a tone.
- Shakespeare
- the tune of your voices
- Shakespeare
- (obsolete) Order; harmony; concord.
- John Locke
- A child will learn three times as much when he is in tune, as when he […] is dragged unwillingly to [his task].
- John Locke
Derived terms
Terms derived from tune (noun)
- call the tune
- can't carry a tune in a bucket
- carry a tune
- change one's tune
- dance to a different tune
- dance to a new tune
- dance to someone's tune
- in tune
- loony tune
- out of tune
- showtune, show tune
- signature tune
- sing a different tune
- sing the same tune
- subtune
- to the tune of
- tuneful
- tuneless
- tunelike
- tunemeister
- tunesmith
- tunewise
- tuny
- who pays the piper calls the tune
Related terms
Translations
melody
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song, short musical composition
informal: act of tuning
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state of being correctly tuned
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
Verb
tune (third-person singular simple present tunes, present participle tuning, simple past and past participle tuned)
- To modify a musical instrument so that it produces the correct pitches.
- to tune a piano or a violin
- 1568, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton; J[ohn] S[tow], editor, Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, OCLC 54747393; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, OCLC 731569711, page 290:
- The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge
- 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Friar, or the Double Discovery, London: Richard Tonson & Jacob Tonson, Act II, p. 21,
- She bids me hope; oh Heav’ns; she pities me!
- And pity still foreruns approching love;
- As Lightning does the Thunder! Tune your Harps
- Ye Angels to that sound […]
- To adjust a mechanical, electric or electronic device (such as a radio or a car engine) so that it functions optimally.
- To make more precise, intense, or effective; to put into a proper state or disposition.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
- To attune; to adapt in style of music; to make harmonious.
- 1645, John Milton, “The Passion” in Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin, London: Humphrey Moseley, p. 17,
- For now to sorrow must I tune my song,
- And set my Harpe to notes of saddest wo,
- 1645, John Milton, “The Passion” in Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin, London: Humphrey Moseley, p. 17,
- (transitive) To give a certain tone or character to.
- To sing with melody or harmony.
- c. 1594, William Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act IV, Scene 3,
- To see great Hercules whipping a gig,
- And profound Solomon to tune a jig,
- 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, London, Book 5, lines 195-196,
- Fountains and yee, that warble, as ye flow,
- Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.
- c. 1594, William Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act IV, Scene 3,
- (South Africa, slang, transitive) To cheek; to be impudent towards.
- Are you tuning me?
Related terms
Translations
to modify a musical instrument
to adjust a mechanical, electric or electronic device so that it functions optimally
Further reading
- tune in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- tune in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
References
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tyn/
Audio (US) (file)
Further reading
- “tune” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
German
Middle English
Portuguese
Tarantino
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