1
: a sliding piece moved by or moving against fluid pressure which usually consists of a short cylindrical body fitting within a cylindrical chamber or vessel along which it moves back and forth
2
: a sliding valve moving in a cylinder in a brass instrument which when depressed by a finger knob serves to lower the instrument's pitch
Examples of piston in a Sentence
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Yet the movie never gets beyond the obvious, and the whole thing soon becomes grindingly repetitive despite its two vigorous lead performances, all the many eye-catching shots of Qualley pumping her butt like a piston and the chunky tsunamis of gore.
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Manohla Dargis, New York Times, 24 May 2024
Carl Jung’s great ally turned rival, Sigmund Freud, proposed a model of the human psyche that acted much like a machine—repression and projection as twin pistons in the psychic engine.
—Frederick Kaufman, Harper's Magazine, 22 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for piston 
Manohla Dargis, New York Times, 24 May 2024
Carl Jung’s great ally turned rival, Sigmund Freud, proposed a model of the human psyche that acted much like a machine—repression and projection as twin pistons in the psychic engine.
—Frederick Kaufman, Harper's Magazine, 22 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for piston
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“Piston.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piston. Accessed 29 May. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
piston
noun
pis·ton
ˈpis-tən 
: a sliding piece moved by or moving against the pressure of a fluid (as steam or hot gases) that usually consists of a short solid cylinder moving within a larger hollow cylinder
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