['instrumәnt]
n. 工具, 手段, 仪器
【化】 仪器
【医】 器械, 仪器
【经】 证券, 文件, 契约
<— 牛津现代英汉双解词典 —>
n 1 implement or apparatus used in performing an action, esp for delicate or scientific work 器具; 器械; 仪器: a surgicalinstrument, eg a scalpel 外科器械（如手术刀） * an opticalinstrument, eg a microscope 光学仪器（如显微镜） * instruments of torture 刑具. 2 apparatus for producing musical sounds, eg a piano, violin, flute or drum 乐器（如钢琴、小提琴、笛或鼓）: learning to play an instrument 学习演奏乐器 * the instruments of the orchestra 演奏管弦乐的乐器. 3 measuring device giving information about the operation of an engine, etc or in navigation （发动机等或航海、航空中用的）测量仪器, 仪表: a ship’s instruments 船用测量仪器 * [attrib 作定语] an instrument panel 仪表盘. =>Usage at machine 用法见machine. 4 (a) ~ of sb/sth person used and controlled by another person, organization, etc, often without being aware of it 受人利用或控制的人（常为不自觉的）: We humans are merely the instruments of fate. 我们人类只不过是天命的工具. (b) ~ of sth person or thing that brings sth about 促成某事的人或物: The organization he had built up eventually became the instrument of his downfall. 他创建起来的组织到头来却成为促使他倒台的根本原因了. 5 ~ (of sth) formal (esp legal) document 正式的（尤指合法的）文件、文书: The king signed the instrument of abdication. 国王签署了逊位的文告.
这个词，很少用作动词，从字典里看也是名词，如果用作动词；从其词根也可以看出是个名词。意思就是要给某物装备什么东西，或者指示某物。比如下面这个，就是要指使发送端限制定时器。而且后面还有它的名词扩展：instrumentation。
在这里有没有更好的方式。
commit 05b055e89121394058c75dc354e9a46e1e765579
Author: Francis Yan <francisyyan@gmail.com>
Date: Sun Nov 27 23:07:13 2016 -0800
tcp: instrument tcp sender limits chronographs
This patch implements the skeleton of the TCP chronograph
instrumentation on sender side limits:
1) idle (unspec)
2) busy sending data other than 3-4 below
3) rwnd-limited
4) sndbuf-limited
The limits are enumerated 'tcp_chrono'. Since a connection in
theory can idle forever, we do not track the actual length of this
uninteresting idle period. For the rest we track how long the sender
spends in each limit. At any point during the life time of a
connection, the sender must be in one of the four states.