tone in
tone in verb: to fit well (with something, in colour, mood, etc.).
Verb
tone in (third-person singular simple present tones in, present participle toning in, simple past and past participle toned in)
- To fit well (with something, in colour, mood, etc.).
- The stately couch […]; the high-backed chairs […]; the fine oak carvings—all gave a solemnity to the place that toned in with Constance’s forlorn spirit […]1841, Lord William Lennox, chapter 9, in Compton Audley,, volume 3, London: Richard Bentley, page 165
- […] some white grapes covered with a silver bloom and a big cluster of purple ones. These last she had bought to tone in with the new dining-room carpet.1920, Katherine Mansfield, “Bliss”, in Bliss and Other Stories, Toronto: Macmillan, pages 117–118
Synonyms of tone in
Forms of tone in
| third-person singular present | tones in |
|---|---|
| present participle | toning in |
| past participle | toned in |
| past | toned in |
Questions about tone in
- What does tone in mean?
- Tone in means to fit well (with something, in colour, mood, etc.).
- What part of speech is tone in?
- Tone in is a verb.
- What is the past tense of tone in?
- The past tense of tone in is toned in.
Words near tone in in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tone in (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “tone in.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tone_in. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.