piccolo

plural piccolos · plural piccoli

1. entertainmentA transverse flute that is smaller than a Western concert flute and pitched nearly an octave higher.

   Synonyms: octave flute

2. entertainmentAn organ stop with the tone of a piccolo flute.
3. obsoleteentertainmentA piccolo piano.
4. A waiter’s assistant in a hotel or restaurant.

   [A]s I fled I felt Laploshka's reproachful eyes watching the amount that I gave to the piccolo—out of his two francs.

   1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Soul of Laploshka”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 71

   Synonyms: busser, commis waiter, omnibus

5. New YorkSouthern USUSA coin-operated gramophone; a jukebox.
6. A bottle of champagne containing 0.1875 litres of fluid, one quarter the volume of a standard bottle.

   Synonyms: quarter bottle, snipe

1. Designating the highest-pitched or smallest of a family of musical instruments.

   There is also the Piccolo Trumpet, built in D, which can with ease attack high notes which are outside the range of the ordinary B flat instrument, as well as the rarely used Bass Trumpet.

   1945, Christian Darnton, You and Music, 2nd edition, New York: Pelican Books, retrieved 20 Feb 2022, page 65

plural Piccolos

1. A surname from Italian.