carry a tune
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
[edit]carry a tune (third-person singular simple present carries a tune, present participle carrying a tune, simple past and past participle carried a tune)
- (chiefly in the negative) To produce music, especially to sing, with accurate relative pitch.
- 1903, Kate Douglas Wiggin, chapter 1, in Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm:
- Jenny is named for a singer and Fanny for a beautiful dancer, but mother says they're both misfits, for Jenny can't carry a tune and Fanny's kind of stiff-legged.
- 1922, Jim Tully, Emmett Lawler[1], page 209:
- Emmett burst forth in song, but his comrade punched him in the side and said, “Lord Sakes, shut up, you can't carry a tune in a bucket.