TONE UP • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tone up

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/toʊn əp/ Listen

verb

Tone v. t. (past & past part. toned; pres. part. toning)

To utter with an affected tone.

To give tone, or a particular tone, to; to tune. See Tune, v. t.

(Photog.) To bring, as a print, to a certain required shade of color, as by chemical treatment.

To tone down.

(a)

To cause to give lower tone or sound; to give a lower tone to.

(b)

(Paint.) To modify, as color, by making it less brilliant or less crude; to modify, as a composition of color, by making it more harmonius. "Its thousand hues toned down harmoniusly."

(c)

Fig.: To moderate or relax; to diminish or weaken the striking characteristics of; to soften. "The best method for the purpose in hand was to employ some one of a character and position suited to get possession of their confidence, and then use it to tone down their religious strictures."

To tone up, to cause to give a higher tone or sound; to give a higher tone to; to make more intense; to heighten; to strengthen.

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Etymology of 'Tone up'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tone up" Quotes from Famous Books

... the next month Owen's annual holiday arrived. The authorities of the London and Suburban Bank were no niggards. They recognized that a man is not a machine. They gave their employees ten days in the year in which to tone up their systems for another twelve ...

— The Man Upstairs and Other Stories • P. G. Wodehouse

... his special benefit on the night before, so as to break his nerves a little and make him thirsty next morning. Well, you see, the thing worked, and B—— drank his bottle or two, and went to bed pretty mellow. Of course he must tone up in the morning before leaving home, and so come out all right. He would tone up a little more on his way to his office, and then be all ready for business and bright as a new dollar. This would spoil all. So five of us arranged to meet ...

— Danger - or Wounded in the House of a Friend • T. S. Arthur

... It will tone up your nervous system. But it's only for a week, mind! That's the limit of your reprieve before you go away. Don't imagine that stimulants and sedatives take the place of natural food or rest. Whatever—odds and ends you have to clear up must ...

— The Education of Eric Lane • Stephen McKenna

... Whittemore, down at the East Village, has had a fit; and I've got to go and see what I can do for him. The old man has too much blood, and it's gone to his head. We must bleed him. Take the lancets, Jonathan, and the basin too, and a bottle of Daffy's Elixir. There's nothing like it to tone up the stomach. Now we are all ready. Tie your rackets on behind and sit in the ...

— Ben Comee - A Tale of Rogers's Rangers, 1758-59 • M. J. (Michael Joseph) Canavan

... method of voice control, to more varied speech. In the early practice for getting tone variation, the student must guard most carefully against "forcing." Additional difficulties arise when we have vocal changes, and moderate effort, in the degree of the change, is best. In running the tone up, one should let the voice take its own way. The tone should not be pushed or held by any slightest effort at the throat. The control should, as has been said, be far below the throat. In running ...

— Public Speaking • Irvah Lester Winter