Meaning & use

pistoning

verb·Advanced

Last updated

Moving rapidly and repeatedly back and forth or up and down, in the manner of a piston inside an engine.

See it in a sentence

Her legs kept pistoning as she sprinted the final stretch of the race.

The machine's arms were pistoning in a steady, mechanical rhythm.

A note on using this word

Formed by turning the noun "piston" into a verb; it's used mainly in vivid, descriptive writing about rapid mechanical or muscular motion.

Words with a similar meaning

pumpingthrusting

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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