FLUTE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does flute mean? 

• FLUTE (noun)
  The noun FLUTE has 3 senses:

1. 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

2. a tall narrow wineglass

3. a groove or furrow in cloth etc (particularly a shallow concave groove on the shaft of a column)

  Familiarity information: FLUTE used as a noun is uncommon.

• FLUTE (verb)
  The verb FLUTE has 1 sense:

1. form flutes in

  Familiarity information: FLUTE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLUTE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

flute; transverse flute

Hypernyms ("flute" is a kind of...):

wood; woodwind; woodwind instrument (any wind instrument other than the brass instruments)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flute"):

fife (a small high-pitched flute similar to a piccolo; has a shrill tone and is used chiefly to accompany drums in a marching band)

nose flute (a flute that is played by blowing through the nostrils (used in some Asian countries))

piccolo (a small flute; pitched an octave above the standard flute)

Derivation:

flautist; flutist (someone who plays the flute)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A tall narrow wineglass

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

champagne flute; flute; flute glass

Hypernyms ("flute" is a kind of...):

wineglass (a glass that has a stem and in which wine is served)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A groove or furrow in cloth etc (particularly a shallow concave groove on the shaft of a column)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

flute; fluting

Hypernyms ("flute" is a kind of...):

channel; groove (a long narrow furrow cut either by a natural process (such as erosion) or by a tool (as e.g. a groove in a phonograph record))

Derivation:

flute (form flutes in)

• FLUTE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they flute    ... he / she / it flutes   
Past simple: fluted   
Past participle: fluted   
-ing form: fluting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Form flutes in

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "flute" is one way to...):

crimp; pinch (make ridges into by pinching together)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

flute; fluting (a groove or furrow in cloth etc (particularly a shallow concave groove on the shaft of a column))

 Context examples 

When I seemed to have been dozing a long while, the Master at Salem House unscrewed his flute into the three pieces, put them up as before, and took me away.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Meg had a voice like a flute, and she and her mother led the little choir.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The second course was two ducks trussed up in the form of fiddles; sausages and puddings resembling flutes and hautboys, and a breast of veal in the shape of a harp.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

On citole, flute and rebeck.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The flute becomes inaudible, the wheels of the coach are heard instead, and I am on my journey.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Their outward garments were adorned with the figures of suns, moons, and stars; interwoven with those of fiddles, flutes, harps, trumpets, guitars, harpsichords, and many other instruments of music, unknown to us in Europe.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Books and papers everywhere, a broken meerschaum, and an old flute over the mantlepiece as if done with, a ragged bird without any tail chirped on one window seat, and a box of white mice adorned the other.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The Master, upon this, put his hand underneath the skirts of his coat, and brought out his flute in three pieces, which he screwed together, and began immediately to play.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

While I was yet in the full enjoyment of it, the old woman of the house said to the Master: Have you got your flute with you?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She fades in her turn, and he fades, and all fades, and there is no flute, no Master, no Salem House, no David Copperfield, no anything but heavy sleep.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)