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View synonyms for tune-up

tune-up

[ toon-uhp, tyoon- ]

noun

  1. an adjustment, as of a motor, to improve working order or condition:

    The car needs a tune-up badly.

  2. Informal. a preparatory activity or warm-up, as before a contest or game:

    The track meet served as a tune-up for the Olympics.



tune up

verb

  1. to adjust (a musical instrument) to a particular pitch, esp a standard one
  2. (esp of an orchestra or other instrumental ensemble) to tune (instruments) to a common pitch
  3. tr to adjust (an engine) in (a car, etc) to improve performance
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. adjustments made to an engine to improve its performance
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of tune-up1

First recorded in 1945–50; noun use of verb phrase tune up
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Idioms and Phrases

Adjust machinery so it is in proper condition, as in I took the car in to be tuned up . [Early 1900s]
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Example Sentences

The health-care system is broken and in need of an overhaul, not a tune-up.

The pale dawn was beginning to peer into the windows, and the birds to tune up in broken chirrupings for the songs of the day.

I thought it might be a good way to tune up for the afternoon whirl, without breaking my word to mother.

Then comes a strikingly realistic passage where Death attempts to tune up his fiddle, as he is to furnish the music for the dance.

The repetition of this passage at intervals throughout the composition suggests occasional hasty and ill-timed efforts to tune up.

Death again attempts to tune up his fiddle, with frenzied haste, and the dance grows in speed and impetuous power.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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