See also LUTUM. [ad. OF. lut (F. lut) or med.L. (use of L. lutum mud).]
1. Tenacious clay or cement composed of various ingredients, and used to stop an orifice, to render air-tight a joint between two pipes, to coat a retort, etc., and to protect a graft. Also with a and pl. a particular kind of this substance. † Lute of wisdom [= med.L. lutum sapientiæ], a composition for hermetical sealing, variously described by alchemists. Fat lute (see quot. 1836–41).
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 195. Þe mouþ of þis pott schal be ioyned to þe mouþ of þe pott þat is in þe erþe with good lute, þat þere mowe noon eir out þerof.
1460–70. Bk. Quintessence, 4. Ȝe schulen opene þe hoole of þe vessel in þe heed þat was selid with þe seel of lute of wijsdom, maad of þe sotillest flour, and of white of eyren, and of moist papere, ymeyngid so þat no þing respire out.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 57/1. Put it in a glass, agglutinate the same, with a lute made for that purpose.
1605. Timme, Quersit., III. 193. The ordinary lutes wherewith to stop vessels of glasse against faint vapours are these.
1660. Sharrock, Vegetables, 68. Lute is made with horse-dung and stiff clay well mix’d together.
1662. R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., § 89. 151. Take a good Retort of Glass, and put on it a good coat of strong Lute made of Blood, Lome, Hair, and sharp Sand.
1766. Cavendish, in Phil. Trans., LVI. 153. A glass tube fitted into its mouth, and secured with lute.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 789. Lutes are compositions which are employed to defend glass and other vessels from the action of fire [etc.].
1836–41. Brande, Chem. (ed. 5), 1037. Fat lute, composed of pipe-clay and drying oil, well beaten to a stiff mass.
1868. Joynson, Metals, 114. Make the box tight with a lute of sand and clay, in equal parts.
† 2. In sense of L. lutum: Mud. Also attrib.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais (1737), V. 231. Lute, Unds, and Sands did long our March oppose.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 143. Roundish granules of a pale lute colour.
3. ‘A packing-ring of india-rubber placed between the lid and the lip of a jar, to prevent the access of air to the contents’ (Knight, Dict. Mech.).
