lute

1
[ loot ]
See synonyms for: lutelutes on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a stringed musical instrument having a long, fretted neck and a hollow, typically pear-shaped body with a vaulted back.

verb (used without object),lut·ed, lut·ing.
  1. to play a lute.

verb (used with object),lut·ed, lut·ing.
  1. to perform (music) on a lute: a musician skilled at luting Elizabethan ballads.

  2. to express (a feeling, mood, etc.) by means of a lute: The minstrel eloquently luted his melancholy.

Origin of lute

1
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English lut(e), luet, luit, from Middle French, Old French leut, lut, from Old Provençal laut, from Arabic al ʿūd oud

Words Nearby lute

Other definitions for lute (2 of 3)

lute2
[ loot ]

noun
verb (used with object),lut·ed, lut·ing.
  1. to seal or cement with luting.

Origin of lute

2
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Old French lut and Medieval Latin lutum, “mud, dirt, clay; clay for modeling”

Other definitions for lute (3 of 3)

lute3
[ loot ]

noun
  1. a paving tool for spreading and smoothing concrete, consisting of a straightedge mounted transversely on a long handle.

verb (used with object),lut·ed, lut·ing.
  1. to spread and smooth (concrete in a pavement) with a lute.

Origin of lute

3
An Americanism dating back to 1870–75; from Dutch loet

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use lute in a sentence

  • That done I went over the water and walked over the fields to Southwark, and so home and to my lute.

  • Here every breath was eloquence, every word a poem, and the voice of Mary sweeter than Musa's lute.

    God Wills It! | William Stearns Davis
  • Up by five o'clock, and while my man Will was getting himself ready to come up to me I took and played upon my lute a little.

  • Parson lute softly entered from the kitchen, wiping the rain from his face and hands, stepping on tiptoe over the bare floor.

  • And I said: What do I care for a kingdom in comparison with my lute?

British Dictionary definitions for lute (1 of 2)

lute1

/ (luːt) /


noun
  1. an ancient plucked stringed instrument, consisting of a long fingerboard with frets and gut strings, and a body shaped like a sliced pear

Origin of lute

1
C14: from Old French lut, via Old Provençal from Arabic al `ūd, literally: the wood

British Dictionary definitions for lute (2 of 2)

lute2

/ (luːt) /


noun
  1. Also called: luting a mixture of cement and clay used to seal the joints between pipes, etc

  2. dentistry a thin layer of cement used to fix a crown or inlay in place on a tooth

verb
  1. (tr) to seal (a joint or surface) with lute

Origin of lute

2
C14: via Old French ultimately from Latin lutum clay

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012