tunes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of tune.

   The street musician knew dozens of tunes by heart.

   Several of the album's tunes became radio hits that summer.

   Note

   The plural mostly belongs to the musical senses: tunes are melodies or songs, counted one by one, as in dozens of tunes or a medley of old tunes. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, as in she tunes the piano. Older English used tune for a single sound or tone, and even for a person's temper. Both of those meanings are now obsolete.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of tune.

   The mechanic tunes each engine until it runs smoothly.

   Every Friday she tunes the studio's two grand pianos.

   Note

   Agreement with a singular subject is what this form marks: he tunes, the mechanic tunes, the radio tunes. It carries every sense of the verb, from pitching an instrument and setting up an engine to finding a station or sharpening a faculty. The object usually tells you which one is meant: a piano, an engine, a dial. A following object also separates it from the plural noun.

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