cornet

plural cornets

1. A musical instrument of the brass family, slightly smaller than a trumpet, usually in the musical key of B-flat.

   Synonyms: cornet-à-piston, cornet-à-pistons

2. A piece of paper twisted to be used as a container.
3. An ice cream cone (the shell itself).
4. UKbroadlydatedAn ice cream cone (the unit comprising the shell and the ice cream).
5. obsoleteA troop of cavalry; so called from its being accompanied by a cornet player.

   They discerned a body of five cornets of horse very full, standing in very good order to receive them.

   1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater

6. entertainmentA kind of organ stop.
7. biologyA hollow horn-like growth.

plural cornets

1. The white headdress worn by the Sisters of Charity.
2. obsoleteThe standard flown by a cavalry troop.
3. historicalThe fifth commissioned officer in a cavalry troop, who carried the colours (equivalent to the ensign in infantry).

   This cornet [translating Cornet] was a brave young cavalier and not more than two years older than me.

   1999, Mike Mitchell, translating HJC von Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, III.14, Dedalus 2016, p. 253

   1 more example

   No general would have sent a mere cornet in command of five hundred horse: Fairfax despatched a colonel to take charge as soon as he heard what had happened.

   1972, Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down, Folio Society, published 2016, page 45