▪ I. intone, v.
(ɪnˈtəʊn)
Also 5–6, 9 entone
[ad. med.L. intonā-re to intone; in form entone, prob. immed. a. OF. entoner (13th c.).]
1. trans. To utter in musical tones; to sing, chant; spec. To recite in a singing voice (esp. a psalm, prayer, etc. in a liturgy); usually to recite in monotone.
| c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iv. 1498 Now may thou entone a mery songe. Ibid. 1620 Entone sum ermonye. 1513 Douglas æneis vii. xii. 5 Ȝe Musis now..Entone [ed. 1555 intone] my sang, and till endyt me leyr. 1805 Southey Madoc ii. v, No choristers the funeral dirge intoned. 1833 Mrs. Browning Prometh. Bound Poet. Wks. 1850 I. 158 All the mortal nations..Are a dirge entoning. 1853 Card. Wiseman Ess. III. 84 The canons hastened..to the crowded cathedral, to intone the usual song of praise. 1868 Milman St. Paul's i. 12 The Clergy began to intone their Litany. |
b. absol. or intr.
| 1849 Blackw. Mag. LXV. 681 [They] join in the most wonderful responses, in a set key, which they call entoning. 1870 Dickens E. Drood iv, He has even tried the experiment of slightly intoning in his pulpit. 1886 Besant Childr. Gibeon ii. x, I can intone of course, but I cannot sing. |
2. To sing the opening phrase of a plain-song melody at the beginning of a chant, canticle, etc., usually as a solo or semichorus: see intonation1 1.
| 1880 W. S. Rockstro in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 12 Intoning, the practice of singing the opening phrase of a Psalm, Canticle, or other piece of Ecclesiastical Music, not in full chorus, but as a solo or semi-chorus, assigned either to a single Priest, or to one, two, or four leading Choristers. Ibid. 15 The first clause [of the Introit] is intoned when the Celebrant approaches the Altar, by one, two, or four Choristers, according to the solemnity of the Festival: which done, the strain is taken up by the full Choir. |
3. To utter with a particular tone or intonation: = intonate v.2 2.
| 1860 Marsh Eng. Lang. xiii. 292 A clear, appropriate and properly intoned and emphasized pronunciation, in reading aloud, is one of the rarest as well as most desirable of social accomplishments. 1866 Engel Nat. Mus. ii. 27 With some uncivilized nations the ear is so little cultivated that the intervals are very rudely and indistinctly intoned. |
4. intr. To utter tones, as in singing or speaking; ‘to make a slow protracted noise’ (J.).
| 1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 253 So swells each wind-pipe; Ass intones to Ass; Harmonic twang! of leather, horn, and brass. |
5. fig. (trans.) To imbue with a particular tone of feeling; to tone. rare.
| 1883 H. Maudsley Body & Will ii. iv. 156 Every one is penetrated and intoned, so to speak, by the social atmosphere of the particular medium in which he lives. |
Hence inˈtoned ppl. a.; inˈtoning vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1854 Milman Lat. Chr. viii. v. 361 His was not..the richly-intoned voice swelling the full harmony of the choir. 1863 Ouida Held in Bondage (1870) 2 We had prayers at eight, which he read in a style of intoning peculiar to him⁓self. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 13 Feb. 2/1 No hush of a church listening to some intoning clergyman could have been greater. |
▪ II. inˈtone, n.
[f. intone v.]
† 1. Something intoned; a song or chant. Obs.
| ? a 1550 in Dunbar's Poems (1893) 324 The potent Prince..is, of angellis with a sweit intone, Borne of the most chest Virgyn Mary bricht. |
2. The action of intoning; the tone of voice used in intoning.
| 1886 N. Sheppard Before an Audience v. 67 The intone is easier to speak and easier to be heard. But it is equally natural for us to fall into the intone as a habit without reference to the contingency. |