flute

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  Men and Women Singers, Flute-players, Harpists, And Dancers, from the Tomb of Ti
• WordNet 3.6
  • v flute form flutes in
  • n flute 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
  • n flute a groove or furrow in cloth etc (particularly a shallow concave groove on the shaft of a column)
  • n flute a tall narrow wineglass
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Additional illustrations & photos:

THE DOG PLAYING THE FLUTE

Sketch of a Flute Player

WASHINGTON PLAYING THE FLUTE

Coolies listening to man playing a flute

A man plays a flute

• Interesting fact: The longest single-word name of a place on Earth is: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipuakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu. This place is a Moari name for a hill in New Zealand and consists of 85 letters. By the way, the name means “The place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed, and swallowed mountains, known as land-eater, played on the flute to his loved one."
• • Flute (Arch) A channel of curved section; -- usually applied to one of a vertical series of such channels used to decorate columns and pilasters in classical architecture. See Illust. under Base n.
  • n Flute flūt A kind of flyboat; a storeship.
  • Flute A long French breakfast roll.
  • Flute A musical wind instrument, consisting of a hollow cylinder or pipe, with holes along its length, stopped by the fingers or by keys which are opened by the fingers. The modern flute is closed at the upper end, and blown with the mouth at a lateral hole. "The breathing flute's soft notes are heard around."
  • Flute A similar channel or groove made in wood or other material, esp. in plaited cloth, as in a lady's ruffle.
  • Flute A stop in an organ, having a flutelike sound.
  • Flute To form flutes or channels in, as in a column, a ruffle, etc.
  • v. i Flute To play on, or as on, a flute; to make a flutelike sound.
  • Flute To play, whistle, or sing with a clear, soft note, like that of a flute. "Knaves are men,
    That lute and flute fantastic tenderness.""The redwing flutes his o-ka-lee."
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• Interesting fact: The oldest musical instrument is probably the flute. It's been discovered that primitive cave dwellers made an instrument from bamboo or some other small hollow wood.
• • n flute In music, an instrument of the pipe kind, in which the tone is produced by the impact of a current of air upon the edge of a hole in the side of a tube. See pipe, fife. Flutes are either direct or transverse, the former (flûtes-à-bec) having a mouthpiece or whistle at the upper end of the tube, which is held straight away from the player's mouth, and the latter (transverse flutes) having a mouth-hole in the side of the tube, which is held across the player's body. In both species finger-holes in the tube control the pitch of the tones; and in both increased force in blowing raises the pitch an octave. The exact explanation of the production of the tone is somewhat uncertain. It is asserted that the stream of air, being usually flat, acts like a free reed in the opening, playing back and forth like a solid tongue.
  • n flute Specifically— In ancient music, a direct flute with a conical wooden tube having a varying number of finger-holes. Sometimes two tubes were attached to one mouthpiece.
  • n flute In medieval music, one of a family of direct flutes, comprising treble, alto, tenor, and bass varieties, all having conical wooden tubes with several finger-holes. The modern flageolet and the penny whistle are derivatives of the treble kind.
  • n flute In modern music, a transverse flute, having a conical or cylindrical wooden or metal tube with holes controlled in part by levers, and having a compass of about three octaves upward from middle C: also called the German flute. The change from the medieval direct flutes took place early in the eighteenth century. The best model for orchestral use was invented by Theobald Boehm in 1832. The piccolo-flute or piccolo is a flute giving toues an octave higher than the ordinary flute.
  • n flute In organ-building, a stop with stopped wooden pipes, having a flute-like tone, usually of four-foot pitch. The number of varieties is very great: they are usually named descriptively, as flute d'amour, flute harmonique, doppel-flote, etc.
  • n flute In architecture, one of a series of curved furrows, usually semicircular in plan, of which each is separated from the next by a narrow fillet. When such flutes are partially tilled up by a smaller convex-curved molding, they are said to be cabled. In ancient architecture the flute is used in the Ionic, Composite, Corinthian, and Roman Doric orders, but never in the Greek Doric. Compare channel.
  • n flute A similar groove in any material, as in a woman's ruffle.
  • n flute In decorative art, a concave depression relatively long and of any form, the sides not necessarily parallel. Compare gadroon.
  • n flute A kind of long, thin French roll.
  • n flute A shuttle used in tapestry-weaving. A separate shuttle is employed for each color of which the woof is composed.
  • n flute A tall and very narrow wine-glass, used especially for sparkling wines. Also called flute-glass.
  • flute To play on a flute; produce a soft, clear note like that of a flute.
  • flute To play or sing softly and clearly in notes resembling those of a flute.
  • flute To form flutes or grooves in, as in a ruffle. See gauffer.
  • n flute A long vessel or boat, with flat ribs or floor-timbers, round behind and swelling in the middle.
  • n flute and The variety of names applied both to flutes proper and to fluty stops in the organ is very great. Thus the older direct flutes are also called straight, à-bec, or beaked: these were made in different sizes, with different fundamental tones, and were then distinguished as discant, alto, tenor, and bass flutes. The transverse flute is also called traverse flute, flute douce, flauto traverse, flute traversière, German flute, cross-flute, etc. In the modern orchestra, besides the standard flute in C, the smaller size, called the octave or piccolo flute, is used; but in military bands several varieties are found, as the terz or tierce flute, and the fourth or quart flute, the fundamental tones of which are, and F respectively. The old flute d'armour was an alto flute, its fundamental tone being A. Organ-stops of a fluty tone are of two kinds, with stopped or with open pipes and belonging properly to the stopped diapason and the open diapason classes respectively (see diapason). Unfortunately, most of the names used for these stops either have no fixed and recognized meaning or are purely fanciful.
  • n flute In organ-building, a flue-stop with open metal pipes of narrow measure and penetrating tone.
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• Interesting fact: High-wire acts have been enjoyed since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Antique medals have been excavated from Greek islands depicting men ascending inclined cords and walking across ropes stretched between cliffs. The Greeks called these high-wire performers neurobates or oribates. In the Roman city of Herculaneum there is a fresco representing an aerialist high on a rope, dancing and playing a flute. Sometimes Roman tightrope walkers stretched cables between the tops of two neighboring hills and performed comic dances and pantomimes while crossing.
• • n Flute flōōt a musical pipe with finger-holes and keys sounded by blowing: in organ-building, a stop with stopped wooden pipes, having a flute-like tone: one of a series of curved furrows, as on a pillar, called also Fluting: a tall and narrow wine-glass: a shuttle in tapestry-weaving, &c
  • v.i Flute to play the flute
  • v.t Flute to play or sing in soft flute-like tones: to form flutes or grooves in
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• Johann Gottfried Von Herder

  

  “Touch not the flute when drums are sounding around; when fools have the word, the wise will be silent.”

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