English
pipe
Pronunciation Noun

pipe (plural pipes)

  1. Meanings relating to a wind instrument.
    1. (musical instrument) A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often line#Verb|lined with hole#Noun|holes to allow for adjustment in pitch#Noun|pitch, sound#Verb|sounded by blow#Verb|blowing into the tube. [from 10th c.]
    2. (music) A tube used to produce#Verb|produce sound#Noun|sound in an organ; an organ pipe. [from 14th c.]
    3. The key#Noun|key or sound of the voice#Noun|voice. [from 16th c.]
      • c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or VVhat You VVill”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iv], page 257 ↗, column 2:
        For they ſhall yet belye thy happy yeeres, / That ſay thou art a man: Dianas lip / Is not more ſmooth, and rubious: thy ſmall pipe / Is as the maidens organ, ſhrill, and ſound, / And all is ſemblatiue a womans part.
    4. A high-pitched sound, especially of a bird. [from 18th c.]
      • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], OCLC 2024748 ↗, part IV, pages 66–67 ↗:
        Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns / The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds / To dying ears, when unto dying eyes / The casement slowly grows a glimmering square; / So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
  2. Meanings relating to a hollow conduit.
    1. A rigid tube that transport#Verb|transports water#Noun|water, steam#Noun|steam or other fluid, as used in plumbing#Noun|plumbing and numerous other applications. [from 10th c.]
      1. (especially in informal contexts) A water pipe.
        A burst pipe flooded my bathroom.
    2. A tubular passageway in the human body such as a blood vessel or the windpipe. [from 14th c.]
    3. (slang) A man#Noun|man's penis.
  3. Meanings relating to a container.
    1. A large container for store#Verb|storing liquid#Noun|liquids or foodstuffs; now especially a vat or cask of cider or wine#Noun|wine. [from 14th c.]
    2. The contents of such a vessel, as a liquid measure, sometimes set at 126 wine gallons; half a tun. [from 14th c.]
  4. Meanings relating to something resembling a tube.
    1. Decorative edging#Noun|edging stitch#Verb|stitched to the hem#Noun|hems or seams of an object made of fabric (clothing, hats, curtains, pillows, etc.), often in a contrasting#Adjective|contrasting color#Noun|color; piping#Noun|piping. [from 15th c.]
    2. A type of pasta similar to macaroni.
    3. (geology) A vertical#Adjective|vertical conduit through the Earth's crust#Noun|crust below a volcano through which magma has passed, often fill#Verb|filled with volcanic breccia. [from 19th c.]
    4. (lacrosse) One of the goalposts of the goal.
    5. (mining) An elongated#Adjective|elongated or irregular#Adjective|irregular body or vein of ore. [from 17th c.]
    6. (Australia, colloquial, historical) An anonymous satire or essay, insulting#Adjective|insulting and frequently libellous, write#Verb|written on a piece of paper#Noun|paper which was roll#Verb|rolled up and left somewhere public#Adjective|public where it could be find#Verb|found and thus spread#Verb|spread, to embarrass the author#Noun|author's enemies. [from 19th c.]
  5. Meanings relating to computing.
    1. (computing) A mechanism that enables one program#Noun|program to communicate with another by send#Verb|sending its output#Noun|output to the other as input#Noun|input. [from 20th c.]
    2. (computing, slang) A data backbone, or broadband Internet access#Noun|access. [from 20th c.]
      A fat pipe is a high-bandwidth connection.
    3. (computing, typography) The character pipe. [from 20th c.]
  6. Meanings relating to a smoking implement.
    1. (smoking) A hollow#Adjective|hollow stem#Noun|stem with a bowl#Noun|bowl at one end used for smoking#Noun|smoking, especially a tobacco pipe but also including various other forms such as a water pipe. [from 16th c.]
      • 1843 December 18, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], OCLC 55746801 ↗, page 129 ↗:
        Sitting in among the wares he dealt in, by a charcoal-stove, made of old bricks, was a gray-haired rascal, nearly seventy years of age; who had screened himself from the cold air without, by a frousy curtaining of miscellaneous tatters, hung upon a line; and smoked his pipe in all the luxury of calm retirement.
      • 1892, Walter Besant, “The Select Circle”, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619 ↗, page 46 ↗:
        At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlor of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle—a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
    2. (Canada, US, colloquial, historical) The distance#Noun|distance travel#Verb|travelled between two rest#Noun|rest periods during which one could smoke#Verb|smoke a pipe. [from 18th c.]
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Italian: pipe
  • Russian: пайп
  • Spanish: banda ancha
Translations Verb

pipe (pipes, present participle piping; past and past participle piped)

  1. (ambitransitive) To play#Verb|play (music) on a pipe instrument, such as a bagpipe or a flute#Noun|flute.
  2. (intransitive) To shout#Verb|shout loudly and at high#Adjective|high pitch#Noun|pitch.
    • 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter II, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: Published by Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, OCLC 19736994 ↗; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, OCLC 258624721 ↗, page 17 ↗:
      "Ar—cher—Ja—cob!" Johnny piped after her, pivoting round on his heel, and strewing the grass and leaves in his hands as if he were sowing seed.
  3. (intransitive) To emit or have a shrill#Adjective|shrill sound like that of a pipe; to whistle#Verb|whistle.
  4. (intransitive, metallurgy) Of a metal ingot: to become hollow#Adjective|hollow in the process#Noun|process of solidifying.
  5. (transitive) To convey or transport#Verb|transport (something) by means of pipes.
  6. (transitive) To install or configure with pipes.
  7. (transitive) To dab#Verb|dab moisture away from.
    • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins: The Garrison in the Stockade”, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, OCLC 702939134 ↗, part IV (The Stockade), pages 153–154 ↗:
      Our chimney was a square hole in the roof; it was but a little part of the smoke that found its way out, and the rest eddied about the house, and kept us coughing and piping the eye.
  8. (transitive, figuratively) To lead#Verb|lead or conduct#Verb|conduct as if by pipes, especially by wired#Adjective|wired transmission.
  9. (transitive, computing, chiefly, Unix) To directly feed#Verb|feed (the output#Noun|output of one program#Noun|program) as input#Noun|input to another program, indicated by the pipe character (pipe) at the command line.
  10. (transitive, cooking) To create or decorate with piping#Noun|piping (icing#Noun|icing).
    to pipe flowers on to a cupcake
  11. (transitive, nautical) To order#Verb|order or signal#Verb|signal by a note#Noun|note pattern#Noun|pattern on a boatswain's pipe.
    • 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XXIII.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, OCLC 639975898 ↗, page 298 ↗:
      Pipe down the starboard watch, boatswain, and see that they go.
  12. (transitive, slang, of a male) To have sexual intercourse with a female.
  13. (transitive, slang, dated) To see.
    Synonyms: Thesaurus:see
Pipe
Proper noun
  1. Surname
  2. An unincorporated community in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. Named after the calumet (pipe) smoked by native Americans.


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