distune

Verb

distune (third-person singular simple present distunes, present participle distuning, simple past and past participle distuned)

1. (transitive) To put (something) out of tune.
   • […] the clapper of his distuned belle
     May cankre soone I mene his false tonge
     Be doumbe for euer & neuer efte to be rungea. 1451, John Lydgate, chapter 20, in The Lyf of Our Lady, Westminster: William Caxton, published 1484
   • And as the Musician neyther streyneth the string of his instrument to hye, for feare of breaking, nor lette[t]h it to low for feare of distuning. So god […] will keepe a meane neyther suffering vs to be carelesselye secure, nor driuing vs for want of comforte to despayre.1587, Robert Southwell, chapter 2, in An Epistle of Comfort to the Reverend Priestes, Paris, pages 23–24

   Synonyms:

   detune, untune

2. (figuratively, transitive) To cause (something) not to be in harmony or to be poorly adjusted.
   • But by eating of the forbidden fruit, and losse of Paradise, his very substance was corrupted and deprived of Life Spiritual: and all his Powers or Faculties not only corrupted, but distuned.1654, Thomas Jackson, A Treatise of the Primaeval Estate of the First Man, Section 2, Chapter 13, in An Exact Collection of the Works of Doctor Jackson, London: Timothy Garthwait, p. 3037
   • O most distuned, and distempered world, where sons talk their aged fathers into their graves!1802, Charles Lamb, John Woodvil, Act IV, in The Works of Charles Lamb, London: C. and J. Ollier, 1818, Volume 1, p. 146

   Synonyms:

   untune