tune

Etymology

From Middle English tune, an unexplained variant of tone, from Old French ton, from Latin tonus, from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “a tone”). Doublet of tone, ton, and tonus.

noun

1. A melody.
2. A song, or short musical composition.
3. (informal) The act of tuning or maintenance.
   Your engine needs a good tune.
4. The state or condition of being correctly tuned.
   Your engine is now in tune.
   This piano is not in tune.
5. (obsolete) Temper; frame of mind.
6. (obsolete) A sound; a note; a tone.
7. (obsolete) Order; harmony; concord.

intj

1. (UK, slang) Used to show appreciation or approval of a song.
   You heard the new Rizzle Kicks song? — Tune!

verb

1. To adjust (a musical instrument) so that it produces the correct pitches.
   to tune a piano or a violin
   The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong 1568, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton, edited by J[ohn] S[tow], Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: […] C. Davis[…], 1736, →OCLC, page 290
2. To adjust or modify (esp. a mechanical or electrical device) so that it functions optimally.
   Tuning the engine gave me an extra twenty horsepower.
   Tune your mind, and anything becomes possible.
3. To adjust the frequency on a radio or TV set, so as to receive the desired channel.
   Tune to Channel 6 for all your favourite daytime shows.
4. Of faculties, senses, etc.: to adapt to or direct towards a particular target.
   My ears were tuned to the sounds of the forest.
5. To make more precise, intense, or effective; to put into a proper state or disposition.
6. To attune; to adapt in style of music; to make harmonious.
7. (transitive) To give a certain tone or character to.
8. (obsolete) To sing with melody or harmony.
9. (transitive, South Africa, slang) To be impudent towards; to cheek.
   Are you tuning me?
10. (fandom slang) to adjust the parameters of singing voice synthesis software such as VOCALOID (in order to achieve certain singing techniques, increase the human quality of the voice, etc.)
    […] Those who are highly skilled in manipulating the Vocaloid technology—e.g., tuning Miku's singing voices—arrange existing[…] 2017-08-10, Keisuke Yamada, Supercell's Supercell featuring Hatsune Miku, Bloomsbury Publishing USA
    LOLA's voice is used simply to render basic notes and words with no pitch or expression tuning applied. 2018-12-06, Nina Sun Eidsheim, The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music, Duke University Press
    This compiling of a track holds many parallels with “tuning” a Miku track, […] 2020, Janice L. Waldron, Stephanie Horsley, Kari K. Veblen, The Oxford Handbook of Social Media and Music Learning, Oxford University Press, USA, page 522