entune

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -uːn

Verb

entune (third-person singular simple present entunes, present participle entuning, simple past and past participle entuned)

1. (chiefly poetic) To tune.
   • 1841 October, P.G. Benjamin Stott, “The Fate of Marion”, in The Odd Fellows' Magazine, volume 6, number 8, page 416:

     Let other bards their harps entune for knight and lady gay, Be mine the homely, humble task, to weave the plaintive lay, Which pleads for injured innocence, and breathes the heartfelt prayer For the gentle village maiden, heart-broken with despair.

   • 1877, Edward Williams Johns, The Silver Wedding, page 149:

     And he shall come again, Shall judge the All, entune disharmony, Shall wipe all weeping eyes: the Lord of Lords, The Christ, the Lord himself, the mighty Lord!

   • 1894, Hiram Mason Sydenstricker, The Epic of the Orient, page 12:

     To celebrate in pean lays Returning months, let not that night Her voice entune.

   • 1901, Charles A. K. Hopkins, Aloha collection of Hawaiian songs, page 4:

     Especially is this so of the songs of the HAWAIIAN race, upon whom the hand of detiny is enforcing changes which will soon entune their natural musical capabilities to the songs of other lands.

   • 1947, Alice Beal Parsons, The World Around the Mountain, page 169:

     It is the function of the poet to entune his readers with the universe, or, in Whitman's words, to indicate the path between reality and man's soul. But as soon as the poet strives to entune himself with the universe, he finds himself thinking of death.

   • 2021, Eileen Barker, “Contemporary Creations and Re-cognitions of Sacred Sites”, in David W. Kim, editor, Sacred Sites and Sacred Stories Across Cultures, page 309:

     New Agers who, through meditation, yoga or ritual, are reaching out to cosmic energy in order to 'entune' themselves with the beyond.

2. (chiefly poetic) To intone or sing.
   • 1751, Mr. Mason, Collection of Poems: In Three Volumes - Volume 3, page 304:

     And well I ween, ye cannot quite be fled, Ere ye entune his mournful elegy.

   • 1856, Edward Wilberforce, The Idler, a treasury of essay, criticism and general literature, page 294:

     A voice that should entune love's melodies With tearful cadence, plaintive as the wind; Pleading enfranchisement from self-wound chain.

   • 1885, John Humberger, The Conquest and Triumph of Divine Wisdom and Love in Predestination, page 110:

     And harps of thousand strings entune His lays.

   • 1889, Louise Chandler Moulton, In the Garden of Dreams: Lyrics and Sonnets, page 59:

     With what cold wintry rune Shall we thy praise entune?

   • 1901, David Shea, Anthony Troyer, transl., The Dabistán, or School of Manners, page 253:

     When they have an intimate connection with their own or another's wife, the behold in her the image of the goddess, and think to personate the god, her husband, and at this time they sing a prescribed song, which to entune at the very moment of the closest junction, they believe to be most recommendable.

   • 2020, Joseph Krauskopf, Jews and Moors in Spain:

     How sublime a music to hear these hundreds of men entune their sacred anthems to God.

Anagrams

• nuntee