TONE, n. [L. tonus; Gr. sound; L. tono; Gr. to sound, to strain or stretch. The L. sonus is probably the same word in a different dialect.]

1. Sound, or a modification of sound; any impulse or vibration of the air which is perceptible by the ear; as, a low tone, high tone, or loud tone; a grave tone; an acute tone; a sweet tone; a harsh tone.
2. Accent; or rather, a particular inflection of the voice, adapted to express emotion or passion; a rhetorical sense of the word. E. Porter. Eager his tone, and ardent were his eyes. Dryden.
3. A whining sound; a whine; a kind of mournful strain of voice; as, children often read with a tone.
4. An affected sound in speaking.
5. In music, an interval of sound; as, the difference between the diapente and diatessaron, is a tone. Of tones there are two kinds, major and minor. The tone major is in the ratio of 8 to 9, which results from the difference between the fourth and fifth. The tone minor is as 9 to 10, resulting from the difference between the minor third and the fourth. Cyc.
6. The tone of an instrument, is its peculiar sound with regard to softness, evenness and the like. Cyc.
7. In medicine, that state of a body, in which the animal functions are healthy and performed with due vigor. Tone, in its primary signification, is tcnsion, and tension is the primary signification of strength. Hence its application to the natural healthy state of animal organs. Tone therefore in medicine, is the strength and activity of the organs, from which proceed healthy functions. So we say, the body is in a sound state, the health is sound or firm.

1. To utter with an affected tone.
2. To tune. [See Tune.]

1. Sound, or the character of a sound, or a sound considered as of this or that character; as, a low, high, loud, grave, acute, sweet, or harsh tone.
   
   

   [Harmony divine] smooths her charming tones. Milton.

   Tones that with seraph hymns might blend. Keble.

2. To utter with an affected tone.
3. Quality, with respect to attendant feeling; the more or less variable complex of emotion accompanying and characterizing a sensation or a conceptual state; as, feeling tone; color tone.
4. Accent, or inflection or modulation of the voice, as adapted to express emotion or passion.
   
   

   Eager his tone, and ardent were his eyes. Dryden.

5. To give tone, or a particular tone, to] to tune. See Tune, v. t.
6. Color quality proper; -- called also hue. Also, a gradation of color, either a hue, or a tint or shade.
   
   

   She was dressed in a soft cloth of a gray tone. Sir G. Parker.

7. A whining style of speaking; a kind of mournful or artificial strain of voice; an affected speaking with a measured rhythm ahd a regular rise and fall of the voice; as, children often read with a tone.
8. To bring, as a print, to a certain required shade of color, as by chemical treatment.
   
   

   To tone down. (a) To cause to give lower tone or sound; to give a lower tone to. (b) (Paint.) To modify, as color, by making it less brilliant or less crude; to modify, as a composition of color, by making it more harmonius.

   Its thousand hues toned down harmoniusly. C. Kingsley.

   (c) Fig.: To moderate or relax; to diminish or weaken the striking characteristics of; to soften.

   The best method for the purpose in hand was to employ some one of a character and position suited to get possession of their confidence, and then use it to tone down their religious strictures. Palfrey.

   -- To tone up, to cause to give a higher tone or sound; to give a higher tone to; to make more intense; to heighten; to strengthen.

9. The condition of normal balance of a healthy plant in its relations to light, heat, and moisture.
10. A sound considered as to pitch; as, the seven tones of the octave; she has good high tones.
    
    
    (b)
11. That state of a body, or of any of its organs or parts, in which the animal functions are healthy and performed with due vigor.
    
    

    * In this sense, the word is metaphorically applied to character or faculties, intellectual and moral; as, his mind has lost its tone.

12. Tonicity; as, arterial tone.
13. State of mind; temper; mood.
    
    

    The strange situation I am in and the melancholy state of public affairs, . . . drag the mind down . . . from a philosophical tone or temper, to the drudgery of private and public business. Bolingbroke.

    Their tone was dissatisfied, almost menacing. W. C. Bryant.

14. Tenor; character; spirit; drift; as, the tone of his remarks was commendatory.
15. General or prevailing character or style, as of morals, manners, or sentiment, in reference to a scale of high and low; as, a low tone of morals; a tone of elevated sentiment; a courtly tone of manners.
16. The general effect of a picture produced by the combination of light and shade, together with color in the case of a painting; -- commonly used in a favorable sense; as, this picture has tone.
    
    

    Tone color. (Mus.) see the Note under def. 4, above. -- Tone syllable, an accented syllable. M. Stuart.