From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishlyrelyre /laɪə $ laɪr/ noun [countable] APMa musical instrument with strings across a U-shaped frame, played with the fingers, especially in ancient Greece
Examples from the Corpus
lyre• She is rather like a lyric author herself, a bit of a lyre.• The allure of pipes, of a lute, of a lyre, a flute.• But this Eros had cast aside his bow and cruel arrows; he sat playing a lyre!• Orpheus, using a lyre to charm the denizens of hell into giving him back his lady.• The minstrel drew sweet sounds from his lyre and waked in all the longing for the dance.• Davide, called by his father to the piano, took up a sheet and set it on the mahogany lyre stand.• They are Vega in the constellation Lyra, the lyre.Origin lyre (1100-1200) Old French lire, from Latin lyra, from Greek 