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▪ I. instrument, n.|ˈɪnstrəmənt|
[a. F. instrument (14th c.; the earlier form was estrument), or ad. L. instrūment-um provision, apparatus, furniture, an implement or tool, a document, f. instruĕre to fit out, equip, instruct.]
1. a. That which is used by an agent in or for the performance of an action; a thing with or through which something is done or effected; anything that serves or contributes to the accomplishment of a purpose or end; a means.
1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 3139 Bot þat fire..es An instrument of Goddes ryghtwysnes. 1387–8T. Usk Test. Love iii. vi. (Skeat) I. 52 Ye han in your bodie diuers members, and fiue sondrie wittes,..whiche thynges as instrumentes ye vsen, as your handes apart to handle. c1477Caxton Jason 37 Spekyng with the mouth whiche is instrument of the dischargyng and discouering of hertes. c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 987 This verbe am the which is an instrument wherby we do expresse by our wordes all verbes passives. 1570T. Norton tr. Nowel's Catech. (1853) 180 Faith is not the cause but the instrument of justification. 1605Shakes. Lear v. iii. 171 The Gods are iust, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to plague vs. 1675Baxter Cath. Theol. i. i. 107 Properly an Instrument is an efficient cause moved by the principal to an effect above its proper virtue. 1776Adam Smith W.N. iv. i. (1869) II. 2 Among the Tartars..cattle are the instruments of commerce. 1807T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 521 The importance of the salts as chemical instruments is very much connected with their solubility in water. 1846Wright Ess. Mid. Ages II. xix. 259 At all periods of English history, songs and ballads were the popular instruments equally of libel and of praise.
b. A person made use of by another person or being, for the accomplishment of a purpose. (In mod. use often taken as fig. from 2: cf. tool.)
a1340Hampole Psalter xliv. 2 comm., His instrument, whaim he ledis as he will. c1386Chaucer Man of Law's T. 272 Thou madest Eua brynge vs in seruage..Thyn Instrument so..Makestow of wommen whan thou wolt bigile. 1548Hall Chron., Hen. V 68 The duke of Burgoyn was a convenient organe and a necessary instrument to conveigh his desires to his purpose. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 415 He sweares, As he had seen't, or beene an Instrument To vice you to't. 1661Bramhall Just Vind. iii. 43 God used him as an instrument to reform his Church. 1726Swift Gulliver i. v, I would never be an instrument of bringing a free and brave people into slavery. 1867Bright Sp. America 29 June (1876) 144 To do honour to a most eminent instrument in the achievement of that freedom. 1896Daily News 28 Apr. 3/1 The divergence between Mr. Chamberlain and his instrument in South Africa has been no less marked.
2. a. A material thing designed or used for the accomplishment of some mechanical or other physical effect; a mechanical contrivance (usually one that is portable, of simple construction, and wielded or operated by the hand); a tool, implement, weapon. Also applied to devices whose primary function is to respond to a physical quantity or phenomenon, esp. by registering or measuring it, rather than to accomplish an effect, and which may function with little direct human intervention and be of complicated design and construction.
Now usually distinguished from a tool, as being used for more delicate work or for artistic or scientific purposes: a workman or artizan has his tools, a draughtsman, surgeon, dentist, astronomical observer, his instruments. Distinguished from a machine, as being simpler, having less mechanism, and doing less work of itself; but the terms overlap.
1375Barbour Bruce xvii. 342 The ynglis host..With Instrumentis on seir maneris, As scaffatis, ledderis, and coueryngis, Pykis, howis, and ek staff-slyngis. c1391Chaucer Astrol. Prol. ⁋1 Conclusions apertenyng to the same instrument [Astrolabe]. 1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 357 Berenge in theire honde an instrumente callede a sparth. 1530Palsgr. 234/2 Instrument of any handy crafte, ovtil. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. v. iii. 200 Here is a Frier, and Slaughter'd Romeos man, With Instruments vpon them fit to open These dead mens Tombes. 1611Bible 2 Sam. xxiv. 22 Here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 147 A Crossebowe,..not comparable to the Gun (an instrument they now make practice of). 1658W. Sanderson Graphice 68 Take a needle or small pointed Instrument, heated in a Candle. 1672Petty Pol. Anat. (1691) 49 An Instrument to measure the Motion of the Wind. 1672[see barometer]. 1774M. Mackenzie Maritime Surv. 74 The other Distances may be got sufficiently exact by Intersections of a good Needle, without any other Instrument to take the Angles. 1839[see indicator 3]. 1843J. Clason Serm. xi. 189 Instruments of torture are unknown. 1845Encycl. Metrop. IV. 68/1 By the term Electroscope we understand an instrument which enables us to observe the presence of free electricity. 1864Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1863 147 Electric currents are most simply compared by ‘electro-dynamometers’ (20)―instruments which, unlike galvanometers, are practically independent of the intensity of the earth's magnetism. 1876[see indicator 3]. 1884List of Subscribers (London & Globe Telephone Co.), The newest and most improved Telephonic Instruments and Apparatus. Ibid., Subscribers..must not allow non-subscribers to use their instruments for the transmission of messages. 1888S. R. Bottone Electr. Instrument Making (ed. 2) 116 Ammeters.—These instruments are intended to measure the amount of current in ampères passing through any given circuit. 1889Preece & Maier Telephone xxix. 464 An instrument of such marvellous sensitiveness as the telephone. a1900Mod. A case of mathematical instruments. The surgeon had to use instruments. 1910R. W. A. Brewer Art of Aviation xvi. 213 Other instruments will be carried to indicate the speed of the machine relatively to the air and to the land. 1924P. J. Risdon Wireless xxxviii. 304 These bells are kept ringing until the operator gets to his instruments, adjusts his headpiece and is ready to receive the direction signals giving the position of the vessel in distress. 1947E. W. F. Feller Instrument & Control Manual xii. 280 The primary purpose of an emergency instrument is to sound an alarm or shut down equipment upon some abnormal operation. 1950A. Marcus Radio Servicing xiii. 585 The vacuum-tube voltmeter..is rapidly becoming one of the most useful instruments employed in radio servicing. 1957Encycl. Brit. XII. 447/1 Instruments which make a record on paper of the magnitude of an electrical quantity with time are available in considerable variety. 1959K. Ullyett Jaguar Compan. x. 170 Polished figured walnut instrument panel features revolution counter and speedometer..and separate instruments for oil pressure, water temperature, fuel gauge and ammeter. 1963Goddard & Brown Pract. Chem. iii. 57 In modern analytical techniques, heavy reliance is placed upon the use of instruments, such as pH-meters, potentiometric titrators,..spectrographs, polarimeters, refractometers, etc. 1967D. P. Davies Handling Big Jets viii. 231 The attitude indicator is the primary flight instrument for turbulence flying.
†b. collect. Apparatus. (A Latinism.) Obs.
1671Milton P.R. iii. 388 Much ostentation vain of fleshy arm, And fragile arms, much instrument of war.
3. spec. A contrivance for producing musical sounds, by the vibrations of some solid material (as strings, reeds, rods, membranes, etc.), or of a body of air in a pipe or tube.
Musical instruments are commonly classified as wind instruments, stringed instruments, and instruments of percussion (most reed instruments being classed under wind instruments): see these words.
c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 225/191 As a fiþele his wynges furde..Muriere Instrument neuere nas þan his wyngen were! 13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 1081 Aungelles with instrumentes of organes & pypes. c1381Chaucer Parl. Foules 197 Of Instreumentis of strengis in a-cord Herde I so pleye, and rauyshyng swetnesse. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xix. 88 Next..gase all þe mynistralles..with all maner of instruments of music. a1533Ld. Berners Huon li. 172, I am a mynstrell as thou seest here by myne instrumentes. 1540in Old City Acc. Bk. in Archæol. Jrnl. XLIII, Pd to y⊇ clarke for playeng of y⊇ yensterment iiijd. 1604Shakes. Oth. iii. i. 6 Are these I pray you, winde Instruments? 1796Jane Austen Pride & Prej. vi. (1813) 20, I am going to open the instrument, Eliza, and you know what follows. 1815― Emma (1870) III. x. 287 She..put the music aside, and..closed the instrument. 1863Longfellow Wayside Inn Prel. 271 The instrument on which he played Was in Cremona's workshops made.
†4. A part of the body having a special function; an organ. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 149 In wyfhode I wol vse myn Instrument As frely as my makere hath it sent. c1400tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. (E.E.T.S.) 79 Cold water dronkyn yn wynter..destruys þe Instrumentis of þe brest, & harmys þe longys. 1572J. Jones Bathes of Bath ii. 18 a, Instrument, or organ [of taste] is a skinne pellicle, or philme, stretched in the over part of the tongue. 1656Ridgley Pract. Physick 28 Whatsoever is troublesome to the instruments of breathing. 1718J. Chamberlayne Relig. Philos. (1730) I. xiii. §1 Among all the Instruments which Animals use, those of the external Senses are least of all known to us.
5. a. Law. A formal legal document whereby a right is created or confirmed, or a fact recorded; a formal writing of any kind, as an agreement, deed, charter, or record, drawn up and executed in technical form, so as to be of legal validity.
1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 257/1 It ought to be myn for I haue therof an Instrument publyque. 1494Fabyan Chron. vii. 344 The sayde lordys shewyd an instrument or wrytynge, at y⊇ which hynge many labellys with sealys, as the Kynges seale, syr Edwarde hys sonnys seale, wt many other of the nobles of the lande. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. clxxiv. 211 Of this ordynaunce and bondes there were made instrumentes publykes, and letters patentes, seyled by bothe Kynges. 1570Buchanan Admonit. Wks. (1892) 28 Y⊇ cardinall Betoun quha be ane fals instrument had taken y⊇ suppreme authoritie to himself. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 214 There were present at the sight hereof seven publick notaries, which called witnesses, and made instruments thereupon. 1660Trial Regic. 45 We shall show that Instrument, that was made under the Hand, and Seal, of the Prisoner at the Bar, as well as others, for Execution of the King: that Bloody Warrant. 1767Blackstone Comm. II. ix. 142 We may observe, in Madox's collection of antient instruments, some leases for years of a pretty early date. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. x. 245 The instrument under which he [Cromwell] took his title accorded to him no unnecessary executive authority. 1845McCulloch Taxation ii. vi. §3 (1852) 284 The payment of the proper duty is made essential to the validity of an instrument. 1866Crump Banking v. 104 Where an instrument is drawn in a careless way, in the form of a promissory note, and accepted, and indorsed as a bill of exchange.
b. Sc. Law. A formal and duly authenticated record, drawn up by a notary-public, of any transaction; hence to ask, give, take instruments.
1535Lyndesay Satyre 2832 (Bannatyne MS.) To that, my lordis, planely we disconsent; Notar, thairof I tak ane instrument. 1540Sc. Acts Jas. V, c. 81 Gif the Notar and Scribe of courte refusis to giue instrumentes, actes, or notes to ony persones desirand the samin, he sall tine his office. 1572Buchanan Detect. Mary F ij (Jam.), Upon the quhilk..the said aduocate askit an act of Court and Instrumentis, and desyrit of the Justice proces conform thairto. a1693Urquhart Rabelais iii. xxiii, We will take Instrument formally and authentically extended, to the end he be not, after his Decease declared an Heretick. 1814Scott Wav. l, The Baron of Bradwardine then took instruments..bearing that all points and circumstances of the act of homage had been rite et solenniter acta et peracta. 1897Johnston of Warriston's Diary (Scot. Hist. Soc.) 96 note, Instruments are the formal and duly authenticated narrative by a Notary public of res gestae of which a person interested desires to preserve a record. The practice of taking instruments is now confined for the most part to Church Courts.
6. attrib. and Comb., as instrument-maker, instrument-making (usually scientific instruments), etc.; instrument-carrying adj.; instrument board = instrument panel; instrument panel, a surface on which gauges, dials, etc., of measuring or indicating instruments are grouped together (as in a motor vehicle or aircraft).
1917‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 18 Not till a pilot can fly his bus unconsciously does he keep place without repeated reference to the throttle and *instrument-board. 1926Amer. Speech I. 686/1 Automobile nomenclature... Instrument board [American], facia board [English]. 1930P. White How to fly Airplane iv. 65 The first endeavor of the pilot-instructor is to familiarize the beginner with..the functions of the various controls, and with the instrument board.
1935Discovery Feb. 44/2 The Leningrad University Observatory is stated to be building a high-altitude *instrument-carrying rocket for stratospheric work. 1959Daily Tel. 1 May 1/1 The programme will certainly enable Britain to put three or four instrument-carrying satellites into space.
1876Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 294 The *instrument counters and floors.
a1691Boyle Hist. Air (1692) 99 Made by a skilful Mathematical-*Instrument-maker. 1770Barrington in Phil. Trans. LXI. 294, I..directed two rain-gages..to be made by your instrument-maker.
1836Dubourg Violin ix. (1878) 269 The Italian renown for *instrument-making attained its climax by the productions of..Straduarius and Guamerius.
1933Discovery Feb. 59/2 An *instrument panel..is incorporated in the camera. 1935Economist 7 Dec. 1140/1 The use of plastics in the motor accessory field will undoubtedly increase considerably in the future... Another noteworthy development with which plastics are connected is the combination instrument panel... By grouping all the instruments in a single panel the space saved can be utilised to give larger storage pockets. 1958W. R. Barrett et al. in H. W. Cremer Chem. Engin. Pract. V. 126 Large [air-compressor] installations usually have an instrument panel on which are fitted all pressure gauges and a temperature indicator. 1972E. H. J. Pallett Aircraft Instruments iii. 43 A more effective and standardized grouping has now been adopted; this is known as the ‘basic T’... It constitutes a system by which various items of related flight information can be placed in certain standard locations in all instrument panels.
1876Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 280 The upper and lower rows of terminals are used for the ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ line wires: the two intermediate rows are ‘*Instrument’ terminals.
b. With reference to the use of, esp. dependence on, instruments in the flying of aircraft, as instrument conditions, instrument runway, instrument weather; instrument flying, flying in which the pilot makes no observation of the ground but depends entirely on the instruments in the aircraft; so instrument flight; similarly instrument approach or landing, an approach (approach n. 13) or landing in which the pilot depends entirely on instruments and a ground-based radio guidance system (an instrument landing system).
1947Engineering News-Record 16 Oct. 532/3 Runway E, for instrument approach is 10,000 ft. long and will be paved 8,000 × 200 ft. 1957Encycl. Brit. I. 230/1 During World War II another system was developed for instrument approaches. This..used a talk-down technique.
1957Instrument conditions [see instrument landing below].
1943Instrument flight [see instrument flying below]. 1956W. A. Heflin U.S. Air Force Dict. 270/2 Instrument flight, a flight made by using instruments, without visual reference to the ground.
1928Sterling & Kruse Radio Manual xiii. 506 While instrument flying may enable a pilot to keep his craft at a safe altitude and in a generally correct direction, the hazard of getting far away from the course..is ever present. 1943Instrument Flight (U.S. Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Dept.) p. iii, Instrument flying is as logical and easy as contact flying.
1938Proc. IRE XXVI. 681 At present, the major airlines are planning to install a number of instrument landing systems. 1942J. B. Hoag Basic Radio xxxiv. 288 At certain airports, a radio wave is transmitted..to provide a glider path for ‘blind’ or instrument landing. 1957Encycl. Brit. I. 230/1 In the United States the Civil Aeronautics administration developed a system for landing approaches under instrument conditions, commonly known as ILS (instrument landing system).
1947Shell Aviation News CXIII. 3/1 It will have three runways: an instrument runway (8,500 ft. × 250 ft.) and two non⁓instrument runways. 1951Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) iii. 23 Instrument runway.., a runway..equipped with non-visual aids for take-off and landing.
1949Britannica Bk. of Year 1948 37/1 Seventy-nine per cent. of all aircraft..landed during instrument weather with no traffic delays.
▪ II. instrument, v.|ˈɪnstrəmənt, ɪnstruːˈmɛnt|
[f. prec. n.: cf. F. instrumenter (1440 in Hatz.-Darm.). For the pronunciation cf. compliment v.]
1. Law.
a. intr. To draw up an instrument (see prec. 5).
b. trans. To address an instrument to, petition by means of an instrument.
1719Descr. Parish of Deer in Alex. Smith Aberdeensh. (1875) 1065 The presbitry instrumented in terms of the act of parliament, to make patent doors for them. 1752J. Louthian Form of Process (ed. 2) 74 When the sixty Days are run, and no Indictment execute, then the Prisoner instruments the Lord Advocate..and thereafter presents a Petition.. for Letters of Liberation.
2. Mus. To arrange or score (a piece of music) for instruments, esp. for an orchestra.
1822Blackw. Mag. XII. 443 These he hastily wrote down upon scraps of paper, and next morning arranged them; or, to make use of his own term, instrumented them. 1845E. Holmes Mozart 136 Mozart..is deep in a ‘Miserere’..to contain three choruses, a fugue, and a duet, and to be instrumented for a large orchestra. 1878E. Prout in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 35 note, The Te Deum and Acis were instrumented by Mendelssohn.
3. trans. To equip or provide with instruments (for measuring, recording, controlling, etc.).
1949Trans. Soc. Instrument Technol. I. v. 21/1 The extent of instrumentation..is greater than it is in comparable British plants, although the most modern of these are just as comprehensively instrumented as their opposite numbers in the U.S.A. 1959Instrument Pract. XIII. 194/1 The methods [of analysis] are used specifically for production control and merely to instrument them for laboratory use may be to dally unnecessarily halfway. 1961New Scientist 16 Mar. 661/1 The system will be equipped throughout for automatic control and instrumented for safety. 1962B.S.I. News Feb. 27/2 The whole equipment will be scientifically instrumented. 1962F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics iv. 125 Explorer 11..was instrumented primarily to detect and measure high⁓energy gamma rays. 1970Physics Bull. Mar. 107/1 It would be too costly to instrument and monitor the whole process.
So ˈinstrumented ppl. a., equipped with or using instruments.
1947Shell Aviation News CIX. 13/1 In a large hangar there [is]..the completely instrumented fuselage of a modern bomber. 1954Trans. Soc. Instrument Technol. VI. 47/1 An analysis of the total number of instruments employed on a well-instrumented ironmaking plant. 1957Times 10 Oct. 10/1 The first fully instrumented satellite was planned for launching in March. 1967Guardian 19 Oct. 1/7 The Russian success in carrying out the first instrumented landing on another planet. 1972Lebende Sprachen XVII. 72/2 This is the launch day scheduled for UK-3, the third British-instrumented satellite to be lifted into orbit by an American scout rocket. |