distune

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English

Etymology

dis- +‎ tune

Verb

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  1. (transitive) To put (something) out of tune.
    Synonyms: detune, untune
    • a. 1451 John Lydgate, The Lyf of Our Lady, Westminster: William Caxton, 1484, Chapter 20,[1]
      [] 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, An Epistle of Comfort to the Reverend Priestes, Paris, Chapter 2, pp. 23-24,[2]
      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, London: F. S. Ellis, p. 73,[3]
      [] thy voice distuned and marred of modulation;
    • 1990, Robin Maconie, The Concept of Music, Oxford: Clarendon Press, Chapter 12, p. 105,[4]
      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, London: Macmillan, p. 96,[7]
      They seemed united
      As groom and bride,
      Who’d not communed
      For many years—
      Lives from twain spheres
      With hearts distuned.

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