"untune" - Word of the Day from the OED

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untune, v.

SECOND EDITION 1989

[UN-² 4.] 

    1. trans. To put out of tune; to render inharmonious. Freq. in fig. context.

1598 FLORIO, Distonare, to vntune. 1602 2nd Pt. Return Parnass. V. i. 1996 The cold of wo hath quite vntun'd my voyce. 1643 HERLE Answ. Ferne 15 There would be a discontinuity in the whole, enough to..untune the Organ of the Creation. 1711 ADDISON Spect. No. 135 9 We have drawn two Words into one, which has likewise very much untuned our Language. 1743 in Mem. Eliz. Carter (1808) II. 55 When..The last dread thunders..Untune the concord of the spheres. 1807 J. BARLOW Columb. VIII. 45 The drum's rude clang, the war wolf's hideous howl,..Untuned the harp for all but misery's pains. 1856 C. READE Never too late III. 106 The quail['s]..Crake!crake!crake! untuning the night. 1876 SWINBURNE Erechtheus 1741 Never tear Shall stain for shame nor groan untune the song.

refl. a1661 B. HOLYDAY Juvenal (1673) To Rdr., Certainly I believe he [sc. Horace] injuriously untun'd himself in his fall from the ode to the satyre.

    b. fig. To disorder; to discompose; to render unapt or averse to (something).

1638 N. WHITING Albino & Bellama 343 Madam, what passion does untune your mind? a1657 R. LOVEDAY Lett. (1659) 199 The continuance of my trouble..does often untune and discompose my soul. 1697 DRYDEN Virg. Past. IX. 71 Cares and Time Change all things, and untune my Soul to Rhyme. 1753 HOGARTH Anal. Beauty xiv. 119 Do we not see in most collections that much time disunites, untunes, blackens, and by degrees destroys even the best preserved pictures. 1798 BLOOMFIELD Farmer's Boy, Autumn 228 Disappointed hope untunes the Soul. 1822 SCOTT Halidon Hill II. ii, Gordon. If music touch thee Swinton. It did, before disasters had untuned me. 1860 EMERSON Cond. Life vii. 232 Despair is no muse, and untunes the active powers.

    2. intr. To go out of tune. rare⁰.

1598 FLORIO, Discordare, to disagree, to vntune, to contend, to iarre.

    3. absol. ? To relax, unbend. Obs.

1609 Everie Wom. in her Humor A2b, Come thou hast bene a sinner: vnloade, discharge, vntune, confesse, is venus dominatrix? art not in loue?

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