lute

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“
Most people think a lute is a sort of flute.

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Definitions (27)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A stringed instrument having a body shaped like a pear sliced lengthwise and a neck with a fretted fingerboard that is usually bent just below the tuning pegs.
  2. noun A substance, such as dried clay or cement, used to pack and seal pipe joints and other connections or coat a porous surface in order to make it tight. Also called luting.
  3. transitive verb To coat, pack, or seal with lute.

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Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • So be thou cheered sweet And, if thy lute is here, softly intreat My soul to keep in its resolved course Hereat Peona, in their silver source Shut her pure sorrow drops with glad exclaim 490 And took a lute, from which there pulsing came A lively prelude, fashioning the way In which her voice should wander. —  Endymion A Poetic Romance
  • The triumph his young bride would certainly bring him, in singing his songs after being taught by Alessandro Stradella, would be worth much more than gold She sang the stuff as creditably as it deserved, her voice was fresh and true, and her touch on the lute was at once light and sure. —  Stradella
  • He wished Cucurullo to hasten to the palace and get his manuscripts and his lute, and any small necessaries for you that can be hidden under a cloak. —  Stradella
  • The angel whose lute is his own heart If I could dwell Where Israfel Hath dwelt, and he where I He might not sing so wildly well A mortal melody While a bolder note than his might swell From my lyre within the sky Some day we shall live there, Helen, and then I will sing to thee Hel But now--my love--you must rest--you must sleep Poe Sleep! —  Semiramis and Other Plays Semiramis, Carlotta And The Poet
  • For these intellectual abstractions have no magical touch for our lute-strings of imagination. —  Creative Unity
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Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old French lut, from Old Provençal laut, from Arabic al-'ūd : al-, the + 'ūd, wood, branch, stem, lute.
  2. Middle English, from Old French lut, from Latin lutum, potter's clay.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle English lute (= Dutch luit = Middle Low German lūte = Middle High German lūte, German latule = Swedish luta = Danish luth), from Old French lut, leut, French luth = Italian liuto, leuto, liudo (later New Greek λαοῦτον; Middle Latin lutana), from Spanish laúd, orig. *alaúd = Portuguese alaude, a lute, from Arabic al‘ūd, a lute, from al, the, + ‘ūd, a lute, harp, literally wood, timber, whence also the senses ‘stick,’ ‘staff,’ etc.
  2. from Middle English luten; from lute , n.
  3. from Old French lut, clay, mold, loam, dirt, French lut, lute (in chem. sense), = Italian luto, clay, mud, mire, lute, from Latin lŭtum, mud, literally ‘that which is washed down,’ from luere, wash, = Greek λούειν, wash. Cf. luster .
  4. = French luter; from the noun: see lute , n.
 

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