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Held back very slightly.
Printed above the staff, usually abbreviated (pochiss. ritenuto; pochiss. rit. is ambiguous with ritardando), at a single phrase ending; a tempo almost always follows in the next bar.
Abbreviations: pochiss. rit., pochiss. ritenuto
The smallest possible holding back — a hesitation more felt than heard. Song composers use it to mark the breath at the end of a line and then restore the tempo at once. Because such a slight change is easy to overdo or ignore, reserve it for a moment that needs it, and always mark the a tempo.
Warlock, “Lullaby”, voice, m. 31: “pochiss. ritenuto”, with “a tempo” in the next bar and “(non rit.)” in the bar after.
Pochissimo ritenuto is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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