lute

¹ American  

[loot] / lut /

noun

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

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verb (used without object)

luted, luting

1. to play a lute.

verb (used with object)

luted, luting

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.

lute ² American  

[loot] / lut /

noun

1. luting.

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verb (used with object)

luted, luting

1. to seal or cement with luting.

lute ³ American  

[loot] / lut /

noun

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

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verb (used with object)

luted, luting

1. to spread and smooth (concrete in a pavement) with a lute.

lute ¹ British  

/ 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

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verb

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

lute ² British  

/ 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

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Etymology

Origin of lute¹

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 ( def. )

Origin of lute²

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

Origin of lute³

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

Example Sentences

In his homeland he was a celebrated musician, a player of the oud, a type of lute.

From New York Times

In another, a Kazakh man serenades a group of friends with a traditional two-stringed lute while sitting in a yurt.

From New York Times

Watch the musician Gao Hong absolutely jam on the Chinese pipa, the pear-shaped lute, for an evening hosted by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.

From New York Times

Inspired by her first concert, from the virtuoso guitarist Andrés Segovia, and spurred by an extreme bout of homesickness, Kilcher picked up a lute and began singing odes to Alaska.

From New York Times

The lute has a larger dynamic range, and the harpsichord palette is a bit less.

From New York Times

Related Words

• adhesive
• mud
• plaster
• sand