piccolo

[ pik-uh-loh ]

/ ˈpɪk əˌloʊ /

noun, plural pic·co·los.

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

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Origin of piccolo

1855–60; < Italian: literally, small

Words nearby piccolo

piccanin, piccaninny, piccard, piccata, piccinni, piccolo, piccoloist, pice, piceous, pich, pichiciago

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

Example sentences 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

Cultural definitions for piccolo

piccolo

[ (pik-uh-loh) ]

A small, high-pitched flute.