Definition of "violoncello"

A tentative violoncello is playing, invisible and plaintive, then stops with an asthmatic scrape of catgut.

2002, Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White, Canongate Books (2010), page 110

Preserved under the rock-hard amber varnish was a beautifully crafted mythological scene depicting a nude man in a lush landscape playing a violoncello to a rapt audience of peaceful animals, including a jaguar, lion, swan, fox, peacock, horse, parrot, dogs, badger, deer, bull, ostrich, and no less than an elephant coming over the hill to join them.

2016, Fred R. Kline, Leonardo’s Holy Child, Pegasus Books Ltd.