piano

noun

1. 1

   A percussive keyboard musical instrument, usually ranging over seven octaves, with white and black colored keys, played by pressing these keys, causing hammers to strike strings.

   The piano in his house takes up a lot of space.

   She has been taking lessons for many years and now plays piano very well.

   Bukharin's examples illustrate the level of his reasoning, as when he tells us that the dependence of art on social conditions is proved by the fact that no one can play the piano if there are no pianos.

verb

1. 1

   To play the piano.

   Anyhow I pianoed to my own ear, and had no thought at that time for an audience.

   Who comforted me with Madeleines and lime tea, with whipped cream in my cocoa in far off Ann Arbor while others selfishly fiddled, bassooned, pianoed only for their own ugly self-advancement!

   John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Arnold Weinstein, and others came to the house, taping their poems as I pianoed and zithered and drummed away.

   We guitared and drummed and head banged and pianoed.

2. 2

   To move (the fingers) up and down on, similar to the motions of a pianist playing the piano.

   He just stared at her, leaned back in his chair and pianoed his fingers along the tablecloth.

   “Jean, it ain't right how you separated those two,” he said, and pianoed the little coffin with his fingers, tapping out his grievance.

   The superintendent pianoed his fingers on the surface of a nearby desk.

   Holly pianoed her fingers over her throat.

3. 3

   To equip with a piano.

   Other buildings will also be erected and pianoed by the same architect.

   A tabernacle has been built, burnt, rebuilt, electric lighted, organed, pianoed, and frequently filled — all during the last two years.

adverb

1. 1

   Softly, as a dynamic in a piece of music.

   (abbreviation) p

adjective

1. 1

   Soft, quiet.

2. 2

   Gentle, soft, subdued.

   “Oh! yes, yes, there is not a word to be said against James Benwick[…]that soft sort of manner does not do him justice.”[…] “Well, well, ladies are the best judges; but James Benwick is rather too piano for me[…]”

   ‘Tradecraft, Chris,’ Enderby put in, who liked his bit of jargon, and Martindale, still piano, shot him a glance of admiration.

verb

1. 1

   To become softer and less intense.

   “You know, Mrs. Wrigglechops,” pianoed Miss Drucilla , even more meekly and mildly than before, "the ace is either one or eleven."

   His tone pianoed on intimacy.

   A day pianoed, swelled acutest, pianoed.

Forms

plural

pianos, pianoes

comparative

more piano

superlative

most piano

past tense

pianoed

past participle

pianoed

present participle

pianoing

third person singular

pianos