Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To recite in a singing tone.
- v. To utter in a monotone.
- v. To speak with a singing tone or with a particular intonation.
- v. Music To sing a plainsong intonation.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To give tone or variety of tone to; vocalize.
- To bring into tone or tune; figuratively, to imbue with a particular tone of feeling.
- To speak or recite with the singing voice: as, to intone the litany.
- To utter a tone; utter a protracted sound.
- Specifically To use a monotone in pronouncing or repeating; speak or recite with the singing voice; chant.
- In music:
- To produce a tone, or a particular series of tones, like a scale, especially with the voice; sing or chant.
- In plainsong, to sing the intonation of a chant or melody.
Wiktionary
- v. To give tone or variety of tone to; to vocalize.
- v. To utter with a musical or prolonged note or tone; to speak or recite with singing voice; to chant; as, to intone the church service.
- v. To utter a tone; utter a protracted sound.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To utter with a musical or prolonged note or tone; to chant.
- v. To speak with a distinctive or unusual tone in the voice, or in a monotone.
- v. To utter a prolonged tone or a deep, protracted sound; to speak or recite in a measured, sonorous manner; to intonate.
WordNet 3.0
- v. recite with musical intonation; recite as a chant or a psalm
- v. speak carefully, as with rising and falling pitch or in a particular tone
- v. utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically
Etymologies
- Middle English entonen, from Old French entoner, from Medieval Latin intonāre : Latin in-, in; see in-2 + Latin tonus, tone; see tone.
Examples
“When recalling Vance’s little speech at third base, Bressler did not use the word intone at least not here, nor did he use the words peruse, protagonist, or occupancy in his story.”
“And the whole exercise is needlessly, excessively hostile intone.”
“The pharmaceutical industry will intone its familiar mantra: The cost of drugs is a relatively small percentage of total health care costs; innovation requires investment; research-based companies need to realize an adequate return on investment; and companies often establish access programs for destitute patients.”
“The administration's reaction to the IMF's criticism was to intone the mantra that it plans to halve the federal deficit in five years.”
Bond Market, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“We all want the telecommunications giants to profit, and they intone corporate social responsibility well, but these kinds of dialogue never reach many people on Chicago's Southside or in Tottenham and Hackney.”
“Sadly, the film is poorly made and condescending intone.”
“Back when people relied on stately anchors to gravely intone the important events of the day, even when the only story that mattered was slowly leaking out of a country that sealed up access to any information.”
USA Today: First Person: Japan evokes recollections from Chernobyl
“The night is dark; on throne of stone, his fist was stark; but angels hark now, all intone:”
“(Why not just intone The Line, commissar-like, from the podium, signal for applause, or wild applause, or prolonged and stormy applause, and let us out so we can go back to the evening shift at Grommet Factory #234?)”
“Thus, he is quite at home preaching in the United Church of Canada where he is wont to intone piously on “diversity” and critical approaches to counter racism, sexism, homophobia or other forms of discrimination and oppression.”
Alberta judge rules anti-gay letter not hate speech, overturns ruling « Anglican Samizdat
yarb ...in Assembly, as the Assistant Head
was intoning the Lord's Prayer...
- Peter Reading, Alma Mater, from Tom O' Bedlam's Beauties, 1981 Jun 28, 2008