distune

verb 2

Definitions

verb

1

To put (something) out of tune.

[…] the clapper of his distuned belle May cankre soone I mene his false tonge Be doumbe for euer & neuer efte to be runge

And as the Musician neyther streyneth the string of his instrument to hye, for feare of breaking, nor lette[t]h it to low for feare of distuning. So god […] will keepe a meane neyther suffering vs to be carelesselye secure, nor driuing vs for want of comforte to despayre.

2

To cause (something) not to be in harmony or to be poorly adjusted.

1654, Thomas Jackson, A Treatise of the Primaeval Estate of the First Man, Section 2, Chapter 13, in An Exact Collection of the Works of Doctor Jackson, London: Timothy Garthwait, p. 3037, But by eating of the forbidden fruit, and losse of Paradise, his very substance was corrupted and deprived of Life Spiritual: and all his Powers or Faculties not only corrupted, but distuned.

1802, Charles Lamb, John Woodvil, Act IV, in The Works of Charles Lamb, London: C. and J. Ollier, 1818, Volume 1, p. 146, O most distuned, and distempered world, where sons talk their aged fathers into their graves!

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