lute
    n 1: a substance for packing a joint or coating a porous surface
         to make it impervious to gas or liquid [syn: lute,
         luting]
    2: chordophone consisting of a plucked instrument having a pear-
       shaped body, a usually bent neck, and a fretted fingerboard

Lute \Lute\, v. i.
   To sound, as a lute. --Piers Plowman. --Keats.
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Lute \Lute\, v. t.
   To play on a lute, or as on a lute.
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         Knaves are men
         That lute and flute fantastic tenderness. --Tennyson.
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Lute \Lute\, n. [L. lutum mud, clay: cf. OF. lut.]
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   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.
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   2. A packing ring, as of rubber, for fruit jars, etc.
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   3. (Brick Making) A straight-edged piece of wood for striking
      off superfluous clay from mold.
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Lute \Lute\, 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.
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Lute \Lute\, n. [OF. leut, F. luth; skin to Pr. la['u]t, It.
   li['u]to, le['u]to, Sp. la['u]d, Pg. alaude; all fr. Ar.
   al`[=u]d; al the + `[=u]d 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.
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