instruments

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of instrument.

   The surgeon laid out her instruments before the operation.

   Early navigators relied on simple instruments to chart a course at sea.

   Note

   One plural serves every sense of the singular, from the orchestra pit to the lawyer's desk, where contracts, deeds and wills are all instruments. In the cockpit the plural is the usual form, short for flight instruments, and a single dial is rarely meant. The same spelling also works as the verb form, so "the lab instruments" can begin either a noun phrase or a full clause.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of instrument.

   The lab instruments every prototype to capture stress data during testing.

   The composer instruments the old folk tune for a full orchestra.

   Note

   Two quite different jobs share this form. An engineer instruments a prototype by fitting it with measuring devices, and a composer instruments a tune by scoring it for players. Either way the verb is transitive: you instrument something. A rarer use means to devise or cook up a plan. Read the sentence for a following object to tell it from the plural noun.

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