lute

n. [ OF. leut, F. luth; skin to Pr. laút, It. liúto, leúto, Sp. laúd, Pg. alaude; all fr. Ar. al‘ūd; al the + ‘ūd wood, timber, trunk or branch of a tree, staff, stick, wood of aloes, lute or harp. ] (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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To sound, as a lute. Piers Plowman. Keats. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To play on a lute, or as on a lute. [ 1913 Webster ]

Knaves are men
That lute and flute fantastic tenderness. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. lutum mud, clay: cf. OF. lut. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A packing ring, as of rubber, for fruit jars, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Brick Making) A straight-edged piece of wood for striking off superfluous clay from mold. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Luted; p. pr. & vb. n. Luting. ] To close or seal with lute; as, to lute on the cover of a crucible; to lute a joint. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a curved spine. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Chem.) same as Lutetium; -- an older spelling. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC ]

n. [ From corpus luteum. ] (Physiol. Chem.) A substance of a strongly marked yellow color, extracted from the yolk of eggs, and from the tissue of the corpus luteum. [ 1913 Webster ]