demitones

Noun

demitone (plural demitones)

1. A semitone.
   • Before X-ray we used to talk glibly, and sometimes I suspect without justification, of differences of demitones and half demitones in percussion of the chest and slight enlargements of the heart.1956, Roger Irving Lee, The Happy Life of a Doctor, page 183
2. (broadly, figuratively) A tiny amount; a shade of difference; a gradation; a nuance.
   • I would speak to you, I have seen this opulence banishing by shades, by demitones!1896, Honoré de Balzac, The House of Nucingen, page 57
3. A muted tone; a subdued manner of speaking.
   • Some gutteral sounds, uttered in a curiously resonant demitone, were exchanged between the guardians of the rural community and the shikaree.1871 August 15, Philippus, “Forest Scenes”, in The Oriental Sporting Magazine, volume 4, number 44, page 343
4. A color that is only partly saturated.
   • Dr. van Monckhoven, of Ghent, displays several remarkable enlargements printed in carbon, all distinguished by delicacy of demitone; and Mr. Edward Viles heads the scientific list with microscopi enlargments to the extent of two hundred diameters.1876, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 532
5. (figuratively) Something that is necessary to produce harmony and completeness.
   • The middle class is the. demitone of human society, custodian of the balance, and no fair social order could exist without the cooperation of this class.1947, David Saavedra, Go South Young Man, page 80