distune

English

Etymology

dis- +‎ tune

Verb

distune (third-person singular simple present distunes, present participle distuning, simple past and past participle distuned)

1. (transitive) To put (something) out of tune.

   Synonyms: detune, untune

   • a. 1451, John Lydgate, chapter 20, in The Lyf of Our Lady‎^[1], Westminster: William Caxton, published 1484:

     […] the clapper of his distuned belle
     May cankre soone I mene his false tonge
     Be doumbe for euer & neuer efte to be runge

   • 1587, Robert Southwell, chapter 2, in An Epistle of Comfort to the Reverend Priestes‎^[2], Paris, pages 23–24:

     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.

   • 1871, Algernon Charles Swinburne, “The Litany of Nations”, in Songs before Sunrise‎^[3], London: F. S. Ellis, page 73:

     […] thy voice distuned and marred of modulation;

   • 1990, Robin Maconie, chapter 12, in The Concept of Music‎^[4], Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 105:

     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.

2. (transitive, figurative) To cause (something) not to be in harmony or to be poorly adjusted.

   Synonym: untune

   • 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,^[5]

     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.

   • 1802, Charles Lamb, John Woodvil, Act IV, in The Works of Charles Lamb, London: C. and J. Ollier, 1818, Volume 1, p. 146,^[6]

     O most distuned, and distempered world, where sons talk their aged fathers into their graves!

   • 1922, Thomas Hardy, “Side by Side”, in Late Lyrics and Earlier, with Many Other Verses‎^[7], London: Macmillan, page 96:

     They seemed united
     As groom and bride,
     Who’d not communed
     For many years—
     Lives from twain spheres
     With hearts distuned.

Anagrams

• dunites, nudiest, unedits