piston

¹

[ pis-tuhn ]

noun

1. a disk or cylindrical part tightly fitting and moving within a cylinder, either to compress or move a fluid collected in the cylinder, as air or water, or to transform energy imparted by a fluid entering or expanding inside the cylinder, as compressed air, explosive gases, or steam, into a rectilinear motion usually transformed into rotary motion by means of a connecting rod.
2. a pumplike valve used to change the pitch in a cornet or the like.

Piston

²

[ pis-tuhn ]

noun

1. Walter, 1894–1976, U.S. composer.

piston

/ ˈpɪstən /

noun

1. a disc or cylindrical part that slides to and fro in a hollow cylinder. In an internal-combustion engine it is forced to move by the expanding gases in the cylinder head and is attached by a pivoted connecting rod to a crankshaft or flywheel, thus converting reciprocating motion into rotation

piston

/ pĭs′tən /

1. A solid cylinder or disk that fits snugly into a hollow cylinder and moves back and forth under the pressure of a fluid (typically a hot gas formed by combustion, as in many engines), or moves or compresses a fluid, as in a pump or compressor.

Other Words From

• piston·like adjective
• sub·piston noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of piston¹

First recorded in 1695–1705; from French, from Italian pistone “piston,” a learned alteration of pestone “large pestle,” equivalent to pest(are) “to pound” (variant of Medieval Latin pistare, derivative of Latin pīstus, past participle of pīnsere “to pound, crush”) + -one augmentative suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of piston¹

C18: via French from Old Italian pistone, from pistare to pound, grind, from Latin pinsere to crush, beat

Example Sentences

In the experiments, a piston repeatedly compressed 460 bamboo rods scattered inside a cylinder.

From Science News

To that end, scientists have developed nanoscale versions of many machine parts, such as motors, pistons, pumps, wrenches, and propellers.

From Singularity Hub 

The piston is responsible for compressing air and fuel to be ignited, and is both balanced and timed by the crankshaft.

From Popular-Science

Froghoppers produce suction power with a pumplike structure in their heads, where muscles pull on a membrane to generate negative pressures, akin to a piston.

From Science News

A steam engine is a device that transforms energy of one sort into energy of a different sort, and it can perform useful tasks, such as moving a piston, without ever violating that principle of conservation of energy.

From Nautilus

It is a very simple plan, and will be perfectly tight; it is by restoring an equilibrium on both sides of the piston.

From Project Gutenberg

The water-piston is 10 inches in diameter, drawing and forcing 35 feet perpendicular, equal beam.

From Project Gutenberg

When she had finished her up-stroke the steam passed from under the pole on to the top of the piston in the cylinder.

From Project Gutenberg

Then he came down from London and found that the piston of his engine was half an inch smaller in diameter than the cylinder.

From Project Gutenberg

The steam in ordinary working was shut off when the piston had moved from an eighth to a quarter of its stroke.

From Project Gutenberg

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