I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
know a song/tune/poem etc (= be able to sing a song, play a tune, say a poem etc because you have learned it )
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Do you know all the words to ‘As Time Goes By’?
signature tune
sing in tune (= sing the correct notes )
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I’ve never been able to sing in tune .
tune a radio to a station (= make it receive broadcasts from a particular station )
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The radio was tuned to a country-music station.
tune an instrument (= make it play at the right pitch )
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The musicians were tuning their instruments before the concert began.
tuning fork
tuning peg
whistled...tune
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He whistled a tune as he strolled down the corridor.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
catchy
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With his Soft Machine background, his deadpan baritone, his witty lyrics and catchy tunes , how could he fail?
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Sure, Fleetwood Mac was responsible for some great, catchy tunes .
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He writes catchy tunes with lavish pop hooks and huge slices of melody.
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But this machine played music no-one had ever heard before. Catchy tunes , though, and everyone had a singalong.
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Some catchy and not so catchy tunes help spread the green message.
different
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Everyone was singing a different song out of tune and taking no notice where they were throwing the water.
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Then we might talk about how different books have different voices, different tunes .
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That used to be a completely different tune .
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Now he is singing a different tune .
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But now it dances to a different tune .
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These days I march to a different tune .
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You're singing a different tune now from the one you sang after you'd left her behind and got yourself arrested.
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Clough has always marched to a different tune , but this time his perversity may finally be his undoing.
familiar
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They are comfortably familiar tunes , but she interprets them in an intensely personal way.
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While playing a familiar tune , these vans loudly whistle, talk, sing, and shout.
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Lily grinned as the familiar tune made the boards of the stage beneath her feet throb.
good
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Mike Barson, the man who'd given them most of their best tunes , quit the group, spent.
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The developer must have scrapped his plans by, as it was not a good tune for new golf villas.
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Bassist and singer Mark King had a knack for orchestrating good tunes into invincible pop nuggets.
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Enough to buy an entire album just for a couple of good tunes ?
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Religious masterpieces such as the Messiah continue to exercise a fascination which is much more than enjoyment of good tunes .
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It was silly but it was catchy, and children loved it, which is always the sign of a good tune .
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They also have the best hymns, good old jolly tunes .
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Basically this has got a good feel to it, a good tune and a good throb.
little
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The refrigerator hummed its usual little tune to break the silence and Donna drank her coffee.
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Whatever, Mesmerised is a really pretty, catchy perhaps even poppy, little tune .
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The hotel phone sings its special little sickly Stef-and-Hugo tune .
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A cheap little tune To cheap little rhymes Can cut a man's Throat sometimes.
popular
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By careful timing they gave good renderings of a number of popular tunes .
traditional
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Too bad this disc puts so much emphasis on traditional folk tunes in its lessons.
■ NOUN
signature
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Even the distinctive signature tune has been re-recorded to provide a more modern feel.
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Each programme had exciting graphics, instantly identifiable signature tunes and a competition.
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One thing I regret: the jettisoning of the original signature tune .
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It was Buddie's signature tune , the one his band always played at the start of every session.
theme
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The theme tune from Titanic was played at their wedding.
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Gowie Corby, Gowie Corby, the theme tune for all that's wrong in this school.
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Tampons that play the Hollyoaks theme tune when inserted?
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He had come to equate the programme's theme tune with dinner.
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We swung into the Brotherhood of Man's special theme tune and turned all the spots on the stadium entrance.
■ VERB
call
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Does not the divine drama seem to suggest that the Devil is calling the tune ?
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Despite a recent correction, technology called the marching tune in 1995.
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It was the businessmen, not the lords, who called the tune when the industrial system began.
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The man who pays the piper does his best to call the tune .
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You young girls can call the tune nowadays.
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At the end of the day, those who pay the piper must call the tune .
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So don't fall for it - make sure it is you who calls the tune .
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Sad to say, science is no longer pure: commerce pays for it and commerce calls the tune .
carry
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Nice tenor too, and he carries a tune .
change
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Chairman tells union delegates why the old enemy may be changing its tune . reports from the trades union conference at Blackpool.
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What is it about soundtrack projects that makes hard rockers want to change their tune ?
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He'd soon change his tune if he thought she'd lost interest.
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When he got back, he'd changed his tune .
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It was only when audiences hailed her that he changed his tune .
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It also begs a question about whether the government is changing its tune ?
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However, when questioned further he quickly changed his tune .
hum
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I found myself humming to the tune of the violin an old man was playing for sous.
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He was fifteen minutes humming a hymn tune as he did his toenails.
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Hrun hummed a little tune as he began to pull crumbling leather from the desecrated altar.
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Limbs and trunks rubbed together and intermingled, humming deep tunes like giant bass fiddles.
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And when I hummed old tunes that soothed my baby sister something in them spiked your grief to howling.
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The path narrowed, and Maude moved out in front, humming a tune Rob recognized.
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No one knew his name, but people hummed his tunes .
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She's humming a tune behind her silly smile.
play
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I don't just play tunes at keep fit classes.
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While playing a familiar tune , these vans loudly whistle, talk, sing, and shout.
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The karaoke machine had played the tune a month before the tune turned up on the wireless set.
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They play some very sophisticated tunes from the so-called real book.
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Don't play your: old tune , will you?
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The radio was on, playing one Glenn Miller tune after another.
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Ribs like a xylophone, they said. Play us a tune , Hoomey.
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I have been playing the tune now for nearly 40 years.
sing
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It is sung to the tune of Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
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Now he is singing a different tune .
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They were singers and they couldn't sing a note in tune .
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Now the governors are singing a new tune: Not so fast.
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Harriet found Paul teasing Ben: asking him to sing a tune , then taunting him.
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Today, he sings his classic tunes and hands out spiritual books at the end.
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You're singing a different tune now from the one you sang after you'd left her behind and got yourself arrested.
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Throughout a mediocre regular season, the Suns have continually sung the same tune .
whistle
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But equally often he'd collapse in the middle of a sentence or whistling a tune .
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The stranger was swinging his umbrella and whistling that infuriating tune .
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Thought I was going to die, and then twenty-four hours later I was whistling show tunes .
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In fact, Henry can whistle one tune which makes them all want to follow him.
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I listened hard and there was only the sound of the pool man whistling a tune to himself.
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From that moment Tess found she could whistle tunes to the birds just as Mrs d'Urberville wanted.
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A deckhand on the ferry from Brooklyn whistled the tune , and the words floated up from nowhere.
write
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He writes catchy tunes with lavish pop hooks and huge slices of melody.
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He wrote the tune that became the premiere rock song of all time.
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Kevin Costner shares the writing credit on one tune .
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And anyway, apart from one or two occasional pieces, I don't write tunes or songs outside a dramatic context.
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He was jointly responsible for writing at least one tune which became a hit and made a name for the other writer.
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Not writing a tune is easier than writing one.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
call the shots/tune
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But chaps who try chat-up lines of their own get the boot-because she likes to call the shots.
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Does not the divine drama seem to suggest that the Devil is calling the tune?
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It was the businessmen, not the lords, who called the tune when the industrial system began.
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Now, those calling the shots for the company began to realize that the whole damn case was getting too risky.
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Strug, the Houstonian with powerful floor and vault routines, may benefit from having Karolyi calling the shots.
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Traditionally, Tucson Water officials have also been allowed to call the shots.
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Watching outsiders call the shots is not easy.
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You young girls can call the tune nowadays.
change your tune
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Newsome was originally against the plan, but later changed his tune.
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She used to be a Communist, but she changed her tune when her parents left her all that money.
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You've changed your tune all of a sudden! Only yesterday you were saying you thought Christmas presents were a waste of money.
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Chairman tells union delegates why the old enemy may be changing its tune. reports from the trades union conference at Blackpool.
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He'd soon change his tune if he thought she'd lost interest.
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However, when questioned further he quickly changed his tune.
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It also begs a question about whether the government is changing its tune?
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It was only when audiences hailed her that he changed his tune.
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What is it about soundtrack projects that makes hard rockers want to change their tune?
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When he got back, he'd changed his tune.
dance to sb's tune
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They control all the funding so we have to dance to their tune.
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But now it dances to a different tune.
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Everyone was in a circle now, dancing to a rollicking tune played by the small band, and changing partners.
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Mandeville and Santerre had arrived at Templecombe wanting to make everyone dance to their tune.
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Now he danced to Kirov's tune, without knowing the steps.
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She had to stay on her best behaviour and dance to his tune.
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She was dancing to his tune a little too, and she was uneasily aware of it.
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This is how I like things - me pulling the strings, getting them to dance to my tune.
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Why did he get the feeling that he and Egbert were dancing to a tune?
he who pays the piper calls the tune
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Her benefits were therefore not so much economic as political: he who pays the piper calls the tune.
sing a different tune
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Now he is singing a different tune.
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You're singing a different tune now from the one you sang after you'd left her behind and got yourself arrested.
stay tuned
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Stay tuned for more on this late-breaking story.
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Could the same thing happen in the stock market this year? Stay tuned.
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Stay tuned, because the Carrey saga should get interesting.
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And some of us stay tuned to David Sesno.
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And they wanted us to stay tuned to the second half-hour for a thing on Vanna White.
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Even with remote controls at our fingertips, we are likely to stay tuned to the channel we have been watching.
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Music Center sources say, so stay tuned.
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The entire world will have to stay tuned to find out.
theme music/song/tune
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Gowie Corby, Gowie Corby, the theme tune for all that's wrong in this school.
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I know she liked the theme music.
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I worked on the theme song with Ziggy Marley.
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Sometimes the cartoon theme song is better than some of the episodes themselves.
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Tampons that play the Hollyoaks theme tune when inserted?
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The theme music for the show starts up.
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The theme music starts and I immediately find something more interesting to do.
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The theme tune from Titanic was played at their wedding.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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an old familiar tune
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I've heard that tune before, but I don't know the words to the song.
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The music box plays the tune "Send in the Clowns."
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Turn on the radio - let's hear some tunes.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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But they seek also to have a religion which is in tune with the world in which we live.
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Hrun hummed a little tune as he began to pull crumbling leather from the desecrated altar.
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Like a lot of country writers, his tunes often provide a scenario and a twist.
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So in the overture they put Reuben Reeves on stage doing some of Louis's tunes.
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Stephan hummed a little tune and stirred his soup.
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The band put an easy beat through every tune , you could waltz or smooch or shuffle.
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The invisible forces brought us together and made us waltz to an unheard tune .
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With his Soft Machine background, his deadpan baritone, his witty lyrics and catchy tunes, how could he fail?
II. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
fine
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Courses cater for all levels of diver from the absolute beginner up to those who want to fine tune their technique.
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When you read some one who can write about this as well as Lessing, it helps you fine tune your own perceptions.
finely
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Secondly, in some species the choice is remarkably finely tuned so that under certain circumstances familiarity may be preferred over novelty.
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It is a finely tuned art that depends on the perceptive skills and sound judgment of the consultant.
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Not only is the bird's distribution highly individual, its ecology is more finely tuned than that of any other falcon.
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And it is our experience that successful entrepreneurs quickly develop a finely tuned instinct for investing their time in high-profit opportunities.
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His stomach was as finely tuned an instrument as was his palate.
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Likewise, the balance between incidental excitement and structural cohesion is finely tuned in Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel.
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They are so finely tuned to each other s responses that they do seem to be cellmates.
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The administration of each territory was finely tuned and certain aspects of it were recorded on clay tablets at the urban centres.
highly
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All her senses were highly tuned to him.
■ NOUN
people
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More than 3. 5 billion people are expected to tune in to the July 19 event.
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Instead of either changing or performing, people tune out.
radio
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All the radios were tuned into the number one song Stormy Weather, by Lena Horne.
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Perhaps they need a little Radio tuned in to Norman out at that far post!
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Some soccer moms waited in their minivans and station wagons, but none had their radios tuned to the presidential debate.
television
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It was the game that caused so many to travel to Arizona and tune in on television .
■ VERB
stay
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Music Center sources say, so stay tuned .
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Even with remote controls at our fingertips, we are likely to stay tuned to the channel we have been watching.
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Who still works for the 60-officer department as a dispatcher. Stay tuned .
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The entire world will have to stay tuned to find out.
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And they wanted us to stay tuned to the second half-hour for a thing on Vanna White.
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Could the same thing happen in 1996? Stay tuned .
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And some of us stay tuned to David Sesno.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
theme music/song/tune
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Gowie Corby, Gowie Corby, the theme tune for all that's wrong in this school.
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I know she liked the theme music.
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I worked on the theme song with Ziggy Marley.
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Sometimes the cartoon theme song is better than some of the episodes themselves.
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Tampons that play the Hollyoaks theme tune when inserted?
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The theme music for the show starts up.
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The theme music starts and I immediately find something more interesting to do.
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The theme tune from Titanic was played at their wedding.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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If the engine needs to be tuned, Dad can do it.
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The television was tuned to a rerun of "M.A.S.H."
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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He is the main - no, the only - reason for tuning into Neighbours.
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Residents from at least 62 countries tuned in to the program.
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Secondly, in some species the choice is remarkably finely tuned so that under certain circumstances familiarity may be preferred over novelty.
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Stay tuned, because the Carrey saga should get interesting.
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The bikes would sit somewhere between Superstock and superbike machines, with less tuning allowed to them than superbikes.
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The detector has an amplifier that is tuned to recognize and amplify only the pulsed signal.
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The entire world will have to stay tuned to find out.