a disc or short cylinder fitting closely within a tube in which it moves up and down against a liquid or gas, used in an internal-combustion engine to derive motion, or in a pump to impart motion 活塞 ■a valve in a brass musical instrument in the form of a piston, depressed to alter the pitch of a note (铜管乐器上的)活塞阀键
语源
early 18th cent.: from French, from Italian pistone, variant of pestone 'large pestle', augmentative of pestello 'pestle'