lute

plural lutes

1. A fretted stringed instrument, similar to the guitar, having a bowl-shaped body or soundbox; any of a wide variety of chordophones with a pear-shaped body and a neck whose upper surface is in the same plane as the soundboard, with strings along the neck and parallel to the soundboard.

present singular third person lutes · participle present luting · participle past luted · past luted

1. To play on a lute, or as if on a lute.

   in the air , her new voice luting soft

   1820, John Keats, “(please specify the poem)”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   Knaves are men / That lute and flute fantastic tenderness.

   1847, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page number, or |part=Prologue, I to VII, or conclusion)”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC

plural lutes

1. countableuncountableThick sticky clay or cement used to close up a hole or gap, especially to make something air-tight.

   He employed a mixture of flour and white of egg spread upon a linen cloth to cement cracked glass vessels, and used other lutes for similar purposes.

   1830, Thomas Thomson (chemist), The History of Chemistry, volume 1, page 41

2. countableuncountableA packing ring, as of rubber, for fruit jars, etc.
3. countableuncountableA straight-edged piece of wood for striking off superfluous clay from earth.

present singular third person lutes · participle present luting · participle past luted · past luted

1. To fix or fasten something with lute.

   To protect everything till it dried, a man […] luted a big blue paper cap from a cracker, with meringue-cream, low down on Jevon's forehead.

   1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘A Friend's Friend’, Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society, published 2005, page 179

plural Lutes

1. A surname.