Dictionary

distune en · VERB

Etymology

From dis- + tune.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To put (something) out of tune.
   • A judicious distuning, applied to piano tone, has the effect of introducing a wavering quality which the ear interprets as a pleasing liveliness of tone. 1990, Robin Maconie, chapter 12, in The Concept of Music, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 105:
   • […] thy voice distuned and marred of modulation; 1871, Algernon Charles Swinburne, “The Litany of Nations”, in Songs before Sunrise, London: F. S. Ellis, page 73:
   • And as the Musician neyther streyneth the string of his instrument to hye, for feare of breaking, nor lette[t]h it to low for feare of distuning. So god […] will keepe a meane neyther suffering vs to be carelesselye secure, nor driuing vs for want of comforte to despayre. 1587, Robert Southwell, chapter 2, in An Epistle of Comfort to the Reverend Priestes, Paris, pages 23–24:
   • […] the clapper of his distuned belle May cankre soone I mene his false tonge Be doumbe for euer & neuer efte to be runge a. 1451, John Lydgate, chapter 20, in The Lyf of Our Lady, Westminster: William Caxton, published 1484:
2. (figuratively, transitive) To cause (something) not to be in harmony or to be poorly adjusted.
   • They seemed united As groom and bride, Who’d not communed For many years— Lives from twain spheres With hearts distuned. 1922, Thomas Hardy, “Side by Side”, in Late Lyrics and Earlier, with Many Other Verses, London: Macmillan, page 96:
   • 1802, Charles Lamb, John Woodvil, Act IV, in The Works of Charles Lamb, London: C. and J. Ollier, 1818, Volume 1, p. 146, O most distuned, and distempered world, where sons talk their aged fathers into their graves!
   • 1654, Thomas Jackson, A Treatise of the Primaeval Estate of the First Man, Section 2, Chapter 13, in An Exact Collection of the Works of Doctor Jackson, London: Timothy Garthwait, p. 3037, But by eating of the forbidden fruit, and losse of Paradise, his very substance was corrupted and deprived of Life Spiritual: and all his Powers or Faculties not only corrupted, but distuned.

Forms

Synonyms

detune · untune · untune