Nearby Words

Lute

[loot] Example Sentences Origin

lute

1[loot] noun, verb, lut·ed, lut·ing.
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)
2.
to play a lute.

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Lute is one of our favorite verbs.
So is lollygag. Does it mean:
to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.
to spend time idly; loaf.
verb (used with object)
3.
to perform (music) on a lute: a musician skilled at luting Elizabethan ballads.
4.
to express (a feeling, mood, etc.) by means of a lute: The minstrel eloquently luted his melancholy.

Origin:
1325–75; Middle English < Middle French, Old French < Old Provençal laut < Arabic al ʿūd literally, the wood
Example Sentences
  • There is something endearing about the contradictions embodied in the lute.
  • The national instrument is the rubab, a short-necked plucked lute with sympathetic strings.
  • He also maintained a family group during these years, singing traditional songs to the accompaniment of the xalam spike lute.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged

lute

2[loot] noun, verb, lut·ed, lut·ing.
noun
verb (used with object)
2.
to seal or cement with luting.

Origin:
1375–1425; late Middle English < Medieval Latin lutum, special use of Latin lutum mud, clay

lute

3[loot] noun, verb, lut·ed, lut·ing.
noun
1.
a paving tool for spreading and smoothing concrete, consisting of a straightedge mounted transversely on a long handle.
verb (used with object)
2.
to spread and smooth (concrete in a pavement) with a lute.

Origin:
1870–75, Americanism; < Dutch loet
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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World English Dictionary
lute1 (luːt)
 
n
an ancient plucked stringed instrument, consisting of a long fingerboard with frets and gut strings, and a body shaped like a sliced pear
 
[C14: from Old French lut, via Old Provençal from Arabic al `ūd, literally: the wood]

lute2 (luːt)
 
n
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
 
vb
3.  (tr) to seal (a joint or surface) with lute
 
[C14: via Old French ultimately from Latin lutum clay]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

lute
late 13c., from O.Fr. lut, from O.Prov. laut, from Arabic al-'ud, the Arabian lute, lit. "the wood" (source of Sp. laud, Port. alaude, It. liuto), where al is the definite article.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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