presto
Use Presto in a sentence
toʊ adverb
1.
quickly, rapidly, or immediately.
2.
at a rapid tempo (used as a musical direction).
adjective
3.
quick or rapid.
4.
executed at a rapid tempo (used as a musical direction).
noun
5.
Music. a movement or piece in quick tempo.
Origin:
1590–1600; < Italian: quick, quickly < Late Latin praestus (adj.) ready, Latin praestō (adv.) at hand
1590–1600; < Italian: quick, quickly < Late Latin praestus (adj.) ready, Latin praestō (adv.) at hand
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
|
Link To presto
00:10
Presto
is always a great word to know.
So is lollapalooza. Does it mean:
| an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
Collins
World English Dictionary
presto (ˈprɛstəʊ) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —adj, —adv | |
| 1. | music to be played very fast |
| —adv | |
| 2. | immediately, suddenly, or at once (esp in the phrase hey presto) |
| —n , -tos | |
| 3. | music a movement or passage directed to be played very quickly |
| [C16: from Italian: fast, from Late Latin praestus (adj) ready to hand, Latin praestō (adv) present] | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
presto
1598, "quickly," used by conjurers, etc., from It. presto "quick, quickly" in conjuror's patter, from L. præstus "ready," præsto (adv.) "ready, available," from præ "before" + stare "to stand," from PIE base *sta- "to stand" (see stet). Cf. L. præsto
esse "to be at hand, be ready," source of Fr. prêt "ready." As a musical direction, it is a separate borrowing from It., first recorded 1683.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Cite This Source
FOLDOC
Computing Dictionary
PRESTO definition
A parallel language for shared-memory multiprocessors, built on top of C++ by Bershad et al, U Washington 1987. PRESTO provides classes for threads and spinlocks as well as Mesa-style monitors and condition variables.
(ftp://cs.washington.edu/pub/presto1.0.tar.Z). E-mail: presto@cs.washington.edu.
["PRESTO: A Kernel for Parallel Programming Environments", B.N. Bershad et al, U Wash CS TR, Jan 1987].
Example sentences
The game was to set these as low as possible and, hey presto, to beat them.
When this slippage happens abruptly, presto, you've got an earthquake.
And then, presto, he's about in our midst giving an imitation of a wet hen with a brood of ducks.
Presto, the bars of her window fall out into her hands.
Nearby Words
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