From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtunetune1 /tjuːn $ tuːn/ ●●● S3 noun 1 [countable]APM a series of musical notes that are played or sung and are nice to listen to SYN melody That’s a nice tune. She sang some old classics and a few new tunes.to the tune of something (=using the same tune as another song) The song was sung to the tune of ‘Amazing Grace’.► see thesaurus at music2 → in tune3 → out of tune4 → in tune with somebody/sth, out of tune with somebody/something5 → to the tune of $1,000/£2 million etc → call the tune at call1(9), → change your tune at change1(14), → dance to somebody’s tune at dance2(4), → fine-tune, signature tuneCOLLOCATIONSverbsplay a tuneHe played a tune on the piano.hum/whistle a tuneShe was humming a little tune to herself.write/compose a tuneThey wrote many great tunes together in the 80s.ADJECTIVES/NOUN + tunecatchy/memorable (=one that is easy to remember)His songs have simple words and catchy tunes.the theme tune/signature tune (=the tune at the beginning or end of a television programme etc)the theme tune from the movie 'Titanic'a show tune (=a tune from a musical)Broadway show tunesa dance tuneThe DJ played some bouncy dance tunes.a hymn tunea rousing hymn tune
Examples from the Corpus
tune• With his Soft Machine background, his deadpan baritone, his witty lyrics and catchy tunes, how could he fail?• The band put an easy beat through every tune, you could waltz or smooch or shuffle.• an old familiar tune• Like a lot of country writers, his tunes often provide a scenario and a twist.• But they seek also to have a religion which is in tune with the world in which we live.• Hrun hummed a little tune as he began to pull crumbling leather from the desecrated altar.• Stephan hummed a little tune and stirred his soup.• So in the overture they put Reuben Reeves on stage doing some of Louis's tunes.• Turn on the radio - let's hear some tunes.• I've heard that tune before, but I don't know the words to the song.• The music box plays the tune "Send in the Clowns."• The invisible forces brought us together and made us waltz to an unheard tune.tunetune2 ●○○ verb [transitive] 1 APMto make a musical instrument play at the right pitch Someone’s coming tomorrow to tune the piano.2 (also tune up)TETTC to make small changes to an engine so that it works as well as possible3 TCBto make a radio or television receive broadcasts from a particular placetune something to something The radio was tuned to a classical station. → stay tuned at stay1(8)4 → finely/highly tuned → tune in → tune out → tune up→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
tune• The bikes would sit somewhere between Superstock and superbike machines, with less tuning allowed to them than superbikes.• Stay tuned, because the Carrey saga should get interesting.• If the engine needs to be tuned, Dad can do it.• Residents from at least 62 countries tuned in to the program.• He is the main - no, the only - reason for tuning into Neighbours.• Secondly, in some species the choice is remarkably finely tuned so that under certain circumstances familiarity may be preferred over novelty.• The television was tuned to a rerun of "M.A.S.H."• The entire world will have to stay tuned to find out.• The detector has an amplifier that is tuned to recognize and amplify only the pulsed signal.From Longman Business Dictionarytunetune /tjuːntuːn/ noun to the tune of $1000/£100 etc informal used to emphasize how large an amount or number isThe company is in debt to the tune of £1.2 billion.Origin tune1 (1300-1400) tone 