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Fine Dictionary

lyre

laɪr
WordNet
A lyre player and a young violin player make music. Behind them are two boys, one of which may be playing junk pot. In the background some houses.
A lyre player and a young violin player make music. Behind them are two boys, one of which may be playing junk pot. In the background some houses.
  1. (n) lyre
    a harp used by ancient Greeks for accompaniment
Illustrations
In the center Venus on a throne. Next to her throne, two putti with a lyre. Apollo stands on the left, trampling an owl under his right foot. Venus writes with a feather in a book that Apollo hands her. Behind the throne a pegasus. A flying putto holds up a drapery with the title of the book.
In the center Venus on a throne. Next to her throne, two putti with a lyre. Apollo stands on the left, trampling an owl under his right foot. Venus writes with a feather in a book that Apollo hands her. Behind the throne a pegasus. A flying putto holds up a drapery with the title of the book.
Apollo plays his lyre in the midst of the nine Muses on Parnassus.
Apollo plays his lyre in the midst of the nine Muses on Parnassus.
Apollo, with a laurel wreath and his lyre on the ground next to him, is cared for by six muses. Below the scene four lines in French and four in Latin, referring, among other things, to the different sculptors.
Apollo, with a laurel wreath and his lyre on the ground next to him, is cared for by six muses. Below the scene four lines in French and four in Latin, referring, among other things, to the different sculptors.
The female personification of the audience. She is half naked and playing on a lyre. Musical instruments lie under her feet. The audience is accompanied by two deer. The print has a Latin caption. The print is part of a series about the five senses.
The female personification of the audience. She is half naked and playing on a lyre. Musical instruments lie under her feet. The audience is accompanied by two deer. The print has a Latin caption. The print is part of a series about the five senses.
Allegorical representation with various mythological figures. Very prominent: Apollo with his lyre and a young painter standing in front of his easel, palette in hand. The painter is chained to a block of stone. Across a river, Hercules can be seen leading a large group of people into a temple.
Allegorical representation with various mythological figures. Very prominent: Apollo with his lyre and a young painter standing in front of his easel, palette in hand. The painter is chained to a block of stone. Across a river, Hercules can be seen leading a large group of people into a temple.
A man with a lyre, surrounded by three children and a woman.
A man with a lyre, surrounded by three children and a woman.
Seven musicians around a table. Six playing instruments (2 x lute, lyre, bagpipe, shawm, and flute). A woman is singing. The print has a Latin caption.
Seven musicians around a table. Six playing instruments (2 x lute, lyre, bagpipe, shawm, and flute). A woman is singing. The print has a Latin caption.
In a landscape with a river in the foreground Orpheus playing the lyre, surrounded by nymphs. Left Eurydice being bitten by a snake. Hilly landscape with a castle in the background.
In a landscape with a river in the foreground Orpheus playing the lyre, surrounded by nymphs. Left Eurydice being bitten by a snake. Hilly landscape with a castle in the background.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
  1. Lyre
    (Mus) A stringed instrument of music; a kind of harp much used by the ancients, as an accompaniment to poetry.
  2. Lyre
    (Astron) One of the constellations; Lyra. See Lyra.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
  1. (n) lyre
    In music
  2. (n) lyre
    A stringed instrument of Egyptian origin, which became the national instrument of ancient Greece. It belonged essentially to the harp family. It resembled closely the cithara, which was derived from Asia, and, like it, consisted of a hollow body, sometimes made of a tortoise-shell, from which two branching horns projected upward, carrying a cross-piece or yoke; the strings, whose number varied from three to ten or more, but was most characteristically seven, were stretched between the yoke and the body, a bridge being provided on the latter for their attachment. The instrument, held by the left arm, sometimes resting on the knee, was played with a plectrum in the right hand, and also by the fingers of the left hand. The tuning of the strings was probably various, though doubtless tetrachordal from very early times. The strings of an eight-stringed lyre were named hypate, the ‘highest’ string (probably as the lyre was usually held), which was the longest and gave the lowest sound; parhypate, the next string to hypate; lichanos, the forefinger-string; mese, the middle string; paramese, the next string to mese; trite, the third string (from the bottom); paranete, the next string to nete; and nete, the ‘last’ or ‘lowest’ string, which was the shortest and gave the highest sound. From these terms came most of the names of tones in the various Greek tonal systems. (See tetrachord.) The lyre was the instrument most used by the Greeks for accompanying singing and recitation; hence the terms lyric and lyrical. It is doubtful whether it was used unaccompanied by the voice.
  3. (n) lyre
    An element in the name of some instruments of the viol class, as the arm-lyre or lira da braccio, and the knee-lyre or lira da gamba. See lira.
  4. (n) lyre
    A kind of metallic harmonica, mounted on a lyre-shaped frame, occasionally used in military music.
  5. (n) lyre
    A kind of rebec used by the modern Greeks. See rebec.
  6. (n) lyre
    [capitalized] A constellation. See Lyra, 1.
  7. (n) lyre
    A verse of the kind commonly used in lyric poetry.
  8. (n) lyre
    The Manx shearwater, Puffinus anglorum.
  9. (n) lyre
    A grade of isinglass: a trade-name.
  10. (n) lyre
    An obsolete form of leer.
  11. (n) lyre
    See lire.
  12. lyre
    In pianoforte-making, the lyre-shaped frame to which the pedals are attached and through which the pedal-rods work.
  13. lyre
    The posterior portion of the under surface of the fornix of the brain, marked by a number of lines bearing a fancied resemblance to a lyre. Also called lyre of David or lyra Davidis.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
  1. (n) Lyre
    līr a musical instrument like the harp, anciently used as an accompaniment to poetry
Quotations
You can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?
Kahlil Gibran
Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary OE. lire, OF. lyre, L. lyra, Gr. . Cf. Lyra

Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary Fr.,—L. lyra—Gr.

Usage in the news

PORT ANGELES — Clallam County sheriff's deputies have identified the body of a man found in the Lyre River as that of 50-year-old Port Angeles resident James W Hopkins. peninsuladailynews.com

Body found in Lyre River. konp.com

Authorities are waiting to notify next of kin before releasing the name of man whose body was found in the Lyre River. konp.com

The meat-eating species was dubbed the "harp sponge," so-called because its structure resembles a harp or lyre turned on its side. foxnews.com

Rosales +Partners Option "E" for the North Coast Harbor pedestrian bridge designed by Miguel Rosales of Boston resembles a lyre, or the letter "V". blog.cleveland.com

The group also features Peter Greenberg of pioneering Boston band DMZ (as well as The Lyres) and groundbreaking Cincy Garage rockers The Customs (fellow Custom Jim Cole records with the band but doesn't play live). citybeat.com

But of those who have turned the mythological musician's underworld-charming lyre tunes to opera, Georg Philipp Telemann hasn't received much attention. nj.com

But of those who have turned the mythological musician’s underworld-charming lyre tunes to opera, Georg Philipp Telemann hasn’t received much attention. nj.com

AS THE MIDDLE EAST EXPLODES, IS OBAMA PLAYING THE LYRE LIKE NERO . naplesnews.com

In the score, the composer instructs the soloist to apply the soft pedal, going from the standard three strings down to a single string, perhaps representing Orpheus's lyre. mercurynews.com

Usage in literature

No Nero's lyre Across his work of death such yells of triumph flung! "Rowena & Harold" by Wm. Stephen Pryer

Till David's Lyre grew mightier than his Throne! "The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7)" by Lord Byron

For a lyre outshone by my syrinx hast thou sold all thine empire to me. "Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida" by Ouida

He heard the lyres of angels, or the tempting whispers of fiends. "The Best of the World's Classics, Vol. V (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland III" by Various

Fishing Station at Lyre River. "Alphabetical Vocabularies of the Clallum and Lummi" by George Gibbs

Let wrapt musicians strike the lyre, vol. "The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume VI" by Various

In sculpture Amphion is always represented with a lyre; Zethus with a club. "Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome" by E.M. Berens

Then let thy active hand scud o'er thy lyre, And make my spirits frantic with the fire. "The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2" by Robert Herrick

The battle of Bannockburn was an event peculiarly adapted for the strains of the native lyre. "The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI." by Various

His instrument is a kind of lyre not unlike our violin. "Life of Schamyl" by John Milton Mackie

Usage in poetry
Sometimes amid her cottage home,
She touched the breathing lyre,
And then her quivering lips were dumb,
Her soaring soul on fire.
"Milly" by James Avis Bartley
From silence my mute lyre release,
And tune its chords to love;
Breathe o'er its numbers, breathe Thy peace,—
Echo of joy above.
"On Recovering From Sickness" by Caroline Oliphant
Shall Sirius resolve our fears?
Shall Vega's Lord command the Lyre
To scatter from her chords of fire
A music on the mortal years?
"The Testimony of the Suns" by George Sterling Author object (248)
Say that when Fancy closed her wings
And Passion quenched his fire,
Love, Love, still echoed from the strings
As from Anacreon's lyre!
"The Lyre Of Anacreon" by Oliver Wendell Holmes Author object (518)
XIII.
Cease, cease my Tongue, be still, my Lyre,
Be silent every String:
This is a Theme, O heav'nly Choir,
Too great for you to sing.
"The Almighty Conqueror." by Mather Byles Author object (482)
My lyre I tune, my voice I raise,
But with my numbers mix my sighs;
And, whilst I sing Euphelia's praise,
I fix my soul on Cloe's eyes.
"An Ode. The Merchant, To Secure" by Matthew Prior Author object (486)