Mus. [ad. It. flautista, f. flauto flute.] One who plays the flute, a flutist.
1860. Hawthorne, Marble Faun, x. (1883), 109. The harper thrummed with rapid fingers; the violin-player flashed his bow back and forth across the strings; the flautist poured his breath in quick puffs of jollity, while Donatello shook the tambourine above his head, and led the merry throng with unweariable steps.
1879. Stainer, Music of Bible, 80–1. Fig. 49 represents an Egyptian playing on one of these oblique flutes. The attitude will not strike a modern flautist as being either comfortable or convenient, but there is no accounting for the conventionalities of art.
