instrument

Pluralinstruments

Formsinstruments, instrumenting, instrumented

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A device used to produce musical sound, such as a piano, violin, or trumpet.

   He can play almost any instrument you hand him.

   The museum displays rare instruments from the eighteenth century.

   Note

   The music sense is a tool sense narrowed. Latin īnstrūmentum meant "an implement, tool," from īnstruō, "build, arrange," and a player's instrument is the implement of a craft. That is why one can be a master of it, or tune it badly: William Cornishe warned in 1568 that "mys tunying of an Instrument shal hurt a true songe." The same root runs through the surgeon's or scientist's tool.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A tool or implement used for handling, working with, or measuring something.

   The surgeon reached for a sharper instrument to make the incision.

   Craftsmen kept their delicate instruments in a velvet-lined case.

   Similartool, implement, device, utensil

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A device that measures or displays a value or reading.

   An instrument on the dashboard tracks the vehicle's speed.

   Technicians calibrate the instruments to ensure accurate readings.

   Similargauge, meter, dial, indicator

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A means or agency through which an effect is achieved.

   The treaty became an instrument of lasting peace between the nations.

   Public protest has long served as an instrument of political change.

   Similarmeans, vehicle, tool, agent, medium

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A formal legal document, such as a contract, deed, trust, mortgage, or will.

   The notary verified that the instrument had been properly executed.

   Both instruments transferred ownership of the property to the trust.

   Similardocument

   Note

   In law, the word names the document as the thing that does legal work: a contract, deed, mortgage, indenture or will. An instrument is said to be executed, not merely signed. The term also scales up to whole classes, as in negotiable instruments, the paper on which debt markets rest. A bond indenture is the instrument that gives a bond its value. In this sense the paper carries the right.

6. 6
   nounfigurativelycountable

   A person used by another merely as a tool for achieving a goal.

   She realized she had been an instrument in his rise to power.

   The general saw his soldiers as instruments of his ambition.

   Similarpawn, tool, puppet, dupe

   Note

   Here the tool is a person, and the word belittles: someone used, not consulted. Dryden's The Conquest of Granada (1670) puts it as a maxim, "The bold are but the instruments o' the wise." Shakespeare's King John pairs it with "serving man." Set beside the neutral "means" sense, the difference is that a human being has been reduced to a means.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To devise, plan, or conceive something.

   The committee instrumented a strategy to reform the budget.

   Rebels instrument elaborate plots against the regime.

   Similardevise, contrive, engineer, orchestrate, hatch

   Note

   A rare figurative verb: what is instrumented has been arranged on purpose, behind the scenes. Mitzel's "An Evening and an Afternoon with James Purdy," in Gay Community News (1978), speaks of "the instrumented silence and sneers" of literary critics. The silence it describes was engineered, not accidental. Because it is easily mistaken for the measuring verb, the surrounding words must make the scheming clear.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To perform on a musical instrument, or to arrange a piece of music for instruments.

   The arranger instrumented the symphony for a chamber group.

   Few students can instrument a score as skillfully as she does.

   Similarorchestrate, arrange, score

   Note

   The music verb is built on the musical noun. To instrument a piece is to decide which instruments will carry it. The verb takes for plus the ensemble, as in a sonata instrumented for orchestra or a symphony instrumented for a chamber group. It is close to orchestrating, but it is not tied to a full orchestra. The past participle does much of the work.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To equip something with measuring devices.

   Researchers instrument the prototype to capture stress data.

   The team instrumented the rocket with dozens of sensors.

   Similarequip, fit, outfit

   Note

   This is an engineering verb, at home in testing and research. You instrument a prototype or a rocket by fitting it with sensors so that its behavior can be recorded. Its commonest shape is the past participle used as an adjective, as in an instrumented test article. The phrase means a test article that has been wired for measurement, not merely one that has been built.

10. 10
    nounabbreviationellipsis

    Ellipsis of flight instrument.

    In zero visibility, a pilot must trust every instrument on the panel.

    The instruments indicated a rapid loss of altitude.

    Note

    Pilots use this shorthand, and they nearly always use it in the plural. The instruments are the cockpit gauges for altitude, attitude and airspeed, and "flight" is left understood. The usual phrase is flying by reference to your instruments, which is required inside cloud. In a cockpit, "check your instruments" never means hand tools or anything musical.

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