noun tonicity; as, arterial tone.
2. tone ·noun state of mind; temper; mood.
3. tone ·vt to utter with an affected tone.
4. tone ·noun a mode or tune or plain chant; as, the gregorian tones.
5. tone ·vt to give tone, or a particular tone, to; to tune. ·see tune, ·vt.
6. tone ·noun tenor; character; spirit; drift; as, the tone of his remarks was commendatory.
7. tone ·vt to bring, as a print, to a certain required shade of color, as by chemical treatment.
8. tone ·noun the peculiar quality of sound in any voice or instrument; as, a rich tone, a reedy tone.
9. tone ·noun a sound considered as to pitch; as, the seven tones of the octave; she has good high tones.
10. tone ·noun accent, or inflection or modulation of the voice, as adapted to express emotion or passion.
11. tone ·add. ·noun the condition of normal balance of a healthy plant in its relations to light, heat, and moisture.
12. tone ·add. ·noun color quality proper;
called also hue. also, a gradation of color, either a hue, or a tint or shade.
13. tone ·noun 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.
14. tone ·noun 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.
15. tone ·noun the larger kind of interval between contiguous sounds in the diatonic scale, the smaller being called a semitone as, a whole tone too flat; raise it a tone.
xvi. tone ·noun 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.
xvii. tone ·add. ·noun 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.
xviii. tone ·noun 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.
xix. tone ·noun 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.