flute

Meanings

Noun

• A woodwind instrument consisting of a tube with a row of holes that produce sound through vibrations caused by air blown across the edge of the holes, often tuned by plugging one or more holes with a finger; the Western concert flute, a transverse side-blown flute of European origin.
• A recorder, also a woodwind instrument.
• A glass with a long, narrow bowl and a long stem, used for drinking wine, especially champagne.
• A lengthwise groove, such as one of the lengthwise grooves on a classical column, or a groove on a cutting tool (such as a drill bit, endmill, or reamer), which helps to form both a cutting edge and a channel through which chips can escape
• A semicylindrical vertical groove, as in a pillar, in plaited cloth, or in a rifle barrel to cut down the weight.
• A long French bread roll, baguette.
• An organ stop with a flute-like sound.
• A shuttle in weaving tapestry etc.
• A kind of flyboat; a storeship.

Verb

• To play on a flute.
• To make a flutelike sound.
• To utter with a flutelike sound.
• To form flutes or channels in (as in a column, a ruffle, etc.); to cut a semicylindrical vertical groove in (as in a pillar, etc.).

Related

Similar words

• Western concert flute
• edge-blown aerophone

Origin

• From Middle English fleute, floute, flote, from Old French flaute, from Provençal flaut, of uncertain origin. Perhaps ultimately from three possibilities:
• Blend of Provencal flaujol + laut
• From Latin flātus, from flāre
• Imitative.
• flauta, and fluyt.
• Compare French flûte ("a transport")?, Dutch fluit.