TUNE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tune

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noun

Tune n.

1.

A sound; a note; a tone. "The tune of your voices."

2.

(Mus.)

(a)

A rhythmical, melodious, symmetrical series of tones for one voice or instrument, or for any number of voices or instruments in unison, or two or more such series forming parts in harmony; a melody; an air; as, a merry tune; a mournful tune; a slow tune; a psalm tune. See Air.

(b)

The state of giving the proper sound or sounds; just intonation; harmonious accordance; pitch of the voice or an instrument; adjustment of the parts of an instrument so as to harmonize with itself or with others; as, the piano, or the organ, is not in tune. "Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh."

3.

Order; harmony; concord; fit disposition, temper, or humor; right mood. "A child will learn three times as much when he is in tune, as when he... is dragged unwillingly to (his task)."

verb

Tune v. t. (past & past part. tuned; pres. part. tuning)

1.

To put into a state adapted to produce the proper sounds; to harmonize, to cause to be in tune; to correct the tone of; as, to tune a piano or a violin. " Tune your harps."

2.

To give tone to; to attune; to adapt in style of music; to make harmonious. "For now to sorrow must I tune my song."

3.

To sing with melody or harmony. "Fountains, and ye, that warble, as ye flow, Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise."

4.

To put into a proper state or disposition.

Tune v. i.

1.

To form one sound to another; to form accordant musical sounds. "Whilst tuning to the water's fall, The small birds sang to her."

2.

To utter inarticulate harmony with the voice; to sing without pronouncing words; to hum. (R.)

See images of 'Tune'

Etymology of 'Tune'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tune" Quotes from Famous Books

... For a moment I almost surrendered myself to despair. I had had no sleep for two nights, I was overwhelmed with mortification and disgust, and here I was in a country store pranked out like a popinjay, the keeper of a half-crazy wretch who made me dance to any tune he chose to pipe; but I pulled myself together and cajoled Hawkins into leaving the place and giving me back a ...

— The Confessions of Artemas Quibble • Arthur Train

... varying pitch and loudness, odours, savours, and the like. It has also a form or formal constituent. Our data, when we know anything at all, are arranged on some definite principle of order. When we recognize an object by the eye or a tune by the ear, we do not apprehend simply so much colour or sound, but colours spread out and forming a pattern or notes following one another in a fixed order. (If you reverse the movement of a gramophone, you get the same notes as before, but you do not get the same tune.) Further, ...

— Recent Developments in European Thought • Various

... "the graceful movement of the body adjusted by art, to the measures or tune of instruments, or of the voice." All nations have danced. The ancients thought that Pollux and Castor at first taught the practice to the Lacedaemonians; but, whatever be its origin, all climes ...

— The Abominations of Modern Society • Rev. T. De Witt Talmage

... to be thought decorous for church music. Still the New England churches clung to and loved their poor confused psalm-singing as one of their few delights, and whenever a Puritan, even in road or field, heard the distant sound of a psalm-tune he removed his hat and bowed his ...

— Home Life in Colonial Days • Alice Morse Earle

... will practise your music of course, and I trust to you for taking care of my instrument and not letting it be ill-used in any respect. Do not allow anything to be put on it but what is very light. I hope you will try to make out some other tune besides the Hermit. . ...

— Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters - A Family Record • William Austen-Leigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh

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