verb. (old).—To beat: also TO TUNE UP: e.g., ‘The old man TUNED HIM UP delightfully’ = He got a good thrashing: cf. ‘I’ll make you sing another TUNE’ = a threat of corporal punishment. (GROSE).
THE TUNE THE COW (or OLD COW) DIED OF, phr. (old).—1. A grotesque or unpleasant noise; (2) a homily instead of alms. [From an old ballad.]
COLLOQUIALISMS.—TO THE TUNE OF = to the sum, amount, or measure of [a stated figure, etc.]; TO CHANGE ONE’S TUNE (or NOTE) = to alter one’s way of talking, manner, or demand; to change from laughter to tears; TO SING ANOTHER TUNE (see SING); TO TUNE UP = to commence.
1578. Scotish Poems of the Sixteenth Century (1808), II. 185. Priestes, CHANGE YOUR TUNE. [M.]
1694. MOTTEUX, Rabelais, V. ix. I’ll make him CHANGE HIS NOTE presently.
1709. STEELE, The Tatler, No. 31. You look as if you were Don Diego’d to the tune of a thousand pounds. Ibid. (1710), No. 230. Will Hazard has got the hipps, having lost TO THE TUNE OF five hundr’d pounds.
