pianos

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of piano.

   The dealer restored a row of antique pianos for the auction.

   Movers struggled to carry the heavy upright pianos up the narrow stairs.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the instrument alone. The musical marking piano, meaning "softly," and the adjective meaning "quiet" name nothing you can count, so they have no plural. The same spelling also serves the present-tense verb, as in "she pianos the passage," so a word such as "the" or "two" in front is the quickest sign that the instruments themselves are meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of piano.

   Note

   One spelling carries several quite different verbs. It can mean playing the instrument, drumming the fingers on a surface as a pianist would, fitting a room with a piano, or making music grow quieter. The last is the conductor's sense, close kin to the dynamic marking for "softly." With a singular subject, the object and setting usually show which is meant: a conductor who pianos the strings is hushing them, not playing them.

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