Library / English Dictionary

FLUTE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A high-pitched woodwind instrument; a slender tube closed at one end with finger holes on one end and an opening near the closed end across which the breath is blown

Synonyms:

flute; transverse flute

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("flute" is a kind of...):

wood; woodwind; woodwind instrument (any wind instrument other than the brass instruments)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flute"):

fife (a small high-pitched flute similar to a piccolo; has a shrill tone and is used chiefly to accompany drums in a marching band)

nose flute (a flute that is played by blowing through the nostrils (used in some Asian countries))

piccolo (a small flute; pitched an octave above the standard flute)

Derivation:

flautist; flutist (someone who plays the flute)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A groove or furrow in cloth etc (particularly a shallow concave groove on the shaft of a column)

Synonyms:

flute; fluting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("flute" is a kind of...):

channel; groove (a long narrow furrow cut either by a natural process (such as erosion) or by a tool (as e.g. a groove in a phonograph record))

Derivation:

flute (form flutes in)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A tall narrow wineglass

Synonyms:

champagne flute; flute; flute glass

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("flute" is a kind of...):

wineglass (a glass that has a stem and in which wine is served)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Form flutes in

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "flute" is one way to...):

crimp; pinch (make ridges into by pinching together)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

flute; fluting (a groove or furrow in cloth etc (particularly a shallow concave groove on the shaft of a column))

Credits

 Context examples: 

Once more he laid his hand upon my shoulder; and then taking his flute and a few books from his desk, and leaving the key in it for his successor, he went out of the school, with his property under his arm.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

We little thought, any one of us, I dare say, when I ate my breakfast that first morning, and went to sleep under the shadow of the peacock's feathers to the sound of the flute, what consequences would come of the introduction into those alms-houses of my insignificant person.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But I must say that when I was going on with a story in the dark that night, Mr. Mell's old flute seemed more than once to sound mournfully in my ears; and that when at last Steerforth was tired, and I lay down in my bed, I fancied it playing so sorrowfully somewhere, that I was quite wretched.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was in the middle state between sleeping and waking, either then or immediately afterwards; for, as he resumed—it was a real fact that he had stopped playing—I saw and heard the same old woman ask Mrs. Fibbitson if it wasn't delicious (meaning the flute), to which Mrs. Fibbitson replied, Ay, ay! yes! and nodded at the fire: to which, I am persuaded, she gave the credit of the whole performance.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When he had put up his things for the night he took out his flute, and blew at it, until I almost thought he would gradually blow his whole being into the large hole at the top, and ooze away at the keys.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He made many attempts to induce me to consent to an exchange; at one time coming out with a fishing-rod, at another with a fiddle, at another with a cocked hat, at another with a flute.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I dreamed, I thought, that once while he was blowing into this dismal flute, the old woman of the house, who had gone nearer and nearer to him in her ecstatic admiration, leaned over the back of his chair and gave him an affectionate squeeze round the neck, which stopped his playing for a moment.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The coach jolts, I wake with a start, and the flute has come back again, and the Master at Salem House is sitting with his legs crossed, playing it dolefully, while the old woman of the house looks on delighted.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)