All 6 Uses of
tone
in
The Railway Children
- Peter had once asked one of the bargees the time, and had been told to 'get out of that,' in a tone so fierce that he did not stop to say anything about his having just as much right on the towing-path as the man himself.
p. 69.2 *tone = the general feeling, mood, or attitude of something
- 'Oh, how hot I am!' she said; 'and I thought it was going to be cold; I wish we hadn't put on our —' she stopped short, and then ended in quite a different tone — 'our flannel petticoats.'
p. 114.5
- 'Not Uncle Edward,' said Phyllis, in a shocked tone; 'he's in Heaven.'
p. 183.8
- 'As it happens,' said Phyllis, in a tone of exasperated triumph, 'I've got a shuttlecock in my pocket.'
p. 218.5
- 'Sure you can't move?' asked Bobbie, in a rather strange tone.
p. 239.9
- 'I did call it Pax,' said Peter, in an injured tone.
p. 246.8
Definitions:
-
(1)
(tone as in: the tone of the essay) the general feeling, mood, or attitude of something -- especially of something said or written
-
(2)
(meaning too common or rare to warrant focus) See a comprehensive dictionary for the many other common and less common meanings of tone including:
- a quality of sound, music, or voice
- a quality of color
- a quality of muscles seen after exercise, or the act of exercising to create that quality
- signals from a telephone
The expression "tone down", means to make something less forceful.