piccolo

[ pik-uh-loh ]

/ ˈpɪk əˌloʊ /

noun, plural pic·co·los.

a small flute sounding an octave higher than the ordinary flute.

Nearby words

Origin of piccolo

1855–60; < Italian: literally, small

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for piccolo

Piccolo was diagnosed with cancer in 1969 at the age of 25 and died less than a year later.
7 Great Football Flicks From Horse Feathers to Friday Night Lights|The Daily Beast|January 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The piccolo player lay on his back on top of the piano, piping his shrill notes at the ceiling.
The Day of the Beast|Zane Grey
I went on, "I owe you a supper, my friend, for that piccolo vezzeggiamento you have given me——"
A Likely Story|William De Morgan
A sentence addressed to her must be as a piccolo, each word of it a stop, which she must be prepared to seize upon and play.
The Trimmed Lamp|O. Henry

The piccolo who lights your cigar and accepts84 your five pfennigs at the Odéon is an Ethiopian dwarf.
Europe After 8:15|H. L. Mencken, George Jean Nathan and Willard Huntington Wright
But Piccolo was then told to look in Lieblich Gedacht's pocket for a hazel nut, and when he found it to crack it.
The Blue Rose Fairy Book|Maurice Baring

British Dictionary definitions for piccolo

piccolo

/ (ˈpɪkəˌləʊ) /

noun plural -los

a woodwind instrument, the smallest member of the flute family, lying an octave above that of the fluteSee flute (def. 1)

Word Origin for piccolo

C19: from Italian: small; compare English petty, French petit

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for piccolo

piccolo

1856, piccolo flute, from French piccolo, from Italian flauto piccolo "small flute," from piccolo "small," perhaps a children's made-up word, or from picca "point," or from Vulgar Latin root *pikk- "little," related to *piccare "to pierce" (see pike (n.2)). Other sources suggest it is from the same source as French petit (see petit (adj.)).

Culture definitions for piccolo

piccolo

[ (pik-uh-loh) ]

A small, high-pitched flute.