Definition of "lyre"

lyre

/ˈlaɪ.ə/

noun
plural lyres
1. An ancient stringed musical instrument (a yoke lute chordophone) of Greek origin, consisting of two arms extending from a body to a crossbar (a yoke), and strings, parallel to the soundboard, connecting the body to the yoke.
  1. Any instrument of the same musicological classification; any yoke lute.
2. A lyre-shaped sheet music holder that attaches to a wind instrument when a music stand is impractical.
3. (obsolete) A composer of lyric poetry.
verb
third-person singular simple present lyres, present participle lyring, simple past and past participle lyred
1. (rare) to play the lyre
  Quotations
  Alas, far times ago / A woman lyred here / In the evenfall; one who fain did so / From year to year; / And, in loneliness bending wistfully, / Would wake each note / In sick sad rote, / None to listen or see!
  1922, Thomas Hardy, “Penance”, in Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses, London: Macmillan and Co., […], page 143