lute Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a substance for packing a joint or coating a porous surface to make it impervious to gas or liquid
    luting.
  2. noun chordophone consisting of a plucked instrument having a pear-shaped body, a usually bent neck, and a fretted fingerboard

WordNet

Lute noun
Etymology
L. lutum mud, clay: cf. OF. lut.
Definitions
  1. (Chem.) A cement of clay or other tenacious infusible substance for sealing joints in apparatus, or the mouths of vessels or tubes, or for coating the bodies of retorts, etc., when exposed to heat; -- called also luting.
  2. A packing ring, as of rubber, for fruit jars, etc.
  3. (Brick Making) A straight-edged piece of wood for striking off superfluous clay from mold.
Lute transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Luted; present participle & verbal noun Luting
Definitions
  1. To close or seal with lute; as, to lute on the cover of a crucible; to lute a joint.
Lute noun
Etymology
OF. leut, F. luth; skin to Pr. laút, It. liúto, leúto, Sp. laúd, Pg. alaude; all fr. Ar. al'd; al the + 'd wood, timber, trunk or branch of a tree, staff, stick, wood of aloes, lute or harp.
Definitions
  1. (Mus.) A stringed instrument formerly much in use. It consists of four parts, namely, the table or front, the body, having nine or ten ribs or "sides," arranged like the divisions of a melon, the neck, which has nine or ten frets or divisions, and the head, or cross, in which the screws for tuning are inserted. The strings are struck with the right hand, and with the left the stops are pressed.
Lute intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To sound, as a lute. Piers Plowman. Keats.
Lute transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To play on a lute, or as on a lute.
    Knaves are men That lute and flute fantastic tenderness. Tennyson.

Webster 1913