I. ˈpīp noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English pīpa; akin to Old Frisian pīpe pipe, Old Saxon pīpa, Old High German pfīfa, all from a prehistoric West Germanic word derived from (assumed) Vulgar Latin pipa, back-formation from Latin pipare to peep, chirp, of imitative origin like Greek pipos, pippos young bird, Sanskrit pippakā, a kind of bird
1.
a.
(1) : a wind instrument consisting of a tube of straw, reed, wood, or metal (as a flageolet, oboe) — compare panpipe , pitch pipe , shepherd's pipe ; specifically : a small fipple flute held in and played by the left hand leaving the right hand free for beating a tabor — called also tabor pipe
(2) : one of the open or closed tubes comprising the stops of a pipe organ — compare flue pipe , reed pipe
(3) : boatswain's pipe
(4) : bagpipe — usually used in plural
b.
(1) : voice , vocal cord — usually used in plural
a soloist with a powerful set of pipes
(2) : piping 1
their voices came in a shallow unison pipe — Time
helped him with his first pipes on the flute — H.S.Canby
2.
a. : a long hollow cylinder (as of metal, clay, concrete, plastic) used for conducting a fluid, gas, or finely divided solid and for structural purposes ; typically : metal tubing in standard diameters and lengths threaded at the ends for joining and used for water, steam, and other conduits
b. chiefly dialect : a canal or vessel of the body (as of the respiratory organs) — usually used in plural
cleared her pipes and began to sing
c. slang : a coaxial cable used to transmit television or telephone signals
3.
a. : a tubular or cylindrical object, part, or passage: as
(1) : the tubular stem of a plant — compare pipe tree
(2) : burrow
(3) : the hollow part of a pipe key
(4) : blowpipe 4
(5) : isinglass dried in the form of long hollow pieces
(6) : playpipe
b. : a roughly cylindrical and vertical geological formation
a firn pipe
a sand pipe
as
(1) : an elongated vertical or steeply inclined body of ore
(2) : one of the vertical cylindrical masses of volcanic agglomerate in which diamonds occur in So. Africa
(3) : the eruptive channel opening into the crater of a volcano ; also : the filling of such a channel
(4) : the vent of a geyser
c. : a cavity in a casting (as an ingot of steel) due to unequal contraction on solidifying
d. : a small rounded molder's trowel for dressing up concave surfaces
4. : a former department of the British Exchequer charged with drawing up the pipe rolls
5.
[Middle English, from Middle French, pipe, cask, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin pippa, alteration of pipa ]
a. : a large cask of varying capacity used especially for wine and oil
b. : any of various units of liquid capacity based on the size of a pipe ; especially : a unit equal to 2 hogsheads
6.
a. : a device usually consisting of a tube having a bowl at one end and a mouthpiece at the other and used for smoking
tobacco pipe
b. : pipeful
7. : any of the channels of a decoy
8.
a. : a distance (as three quarters of a mile) customarily traveled in colonial New York while smoking one pipeful
b. : a distance (as six miles) customarily traveled by voyageurs or dogsledders between rests
9. slang
a. : pipe dream
might turn in a story about a sea serpent … but I haven't got the nerve to try 'em with a pipe like this — O.Henry
b. : something easy : snap
both think acting on the show is a pipe — Newsweek
c. : something sure : cinch
a play … that is at least a pipe and as certain to make a fortune for anyone who invests in it as anything reasonably can be — G.S.Kaufman
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: partly from Middle English pipen to play on a pipe, from Old English pīpan, from pīpe, n.; partly from pipe (I)
intransitive verb
1.
a. : to play on a pipe (as a bagpipe)
we piped to you, and you did not dance — Mt 11:17 (Revised Standard Version)
b. : to convey orders by signals on a boatswain's pipe
2.
a. : to speak in a high or shrill voice
a thin call piped from the house, and he turned to wave — Ellen Glasgow
his shrill voice piped above the hot volume of American jazz — Scott Fitzgerald
b. : to emit or have a shrill sound like that of a pipe : whistle
wind began to pipe around the stacks, not loud — Warren Eyster
tree frogs pipe … before rain — Marjory S. Douglas
3. slang : weep
4. : to become pipy
5. : to develop cavities in the interior during solidification — used especially of cast steel
transitive verb
1.
a. : to play (a tune) on a pipe (as a bagpipe)
b. : to utter in the shrill tone of a pipe
a robin … piping a few querulous notes — Washington Irving
2.
a. : to cause to go or be with pipe music
men of Scotland who've piped their men into battle — Wynford Vaughan-Thomas
b.
(1) : to call or direct by the boatswain's pipe
piped all hands on deck
(2) : to receive aboard or attend the departure of from a naval vessel with side boys and piping the side
pipe the admiral aboard
3. : to make slips or cuttings of for propagation
4. : to trim with piping
the edge of the white jacket was piped with navy
5. : to throw water upon from a hydraulic pipe : wash with a pipe
6. : to furnish or equip (as a building) with pipes
7.
a. : to convey by means of pipes
pipe water from the standpipe into every house
b. : to convey as if by pipes
every bit of talk in that town is piped into his ears — W.L.Gresham
specifically : to transmit (as current, a radio or television program) by wire or coaxial cable
pipe electricity from the dam to the cities
pipe music into restaurants, stores, and factories
pipe the telecast to all network stations
8. slang : to look at : notice
slapped their wrists when they piped the red long johns — H.D.Schwartz
9. : to put (cookie dough, frosting) on a cookie sheet or baked goods by forcing through a pastry tube
10. : to make cavities in (as an ingot of steel) during casting
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- pipe one's eye
- pipe the side