pipe
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpaɪp/
rhymes: -aɪp
Forms: form: pipes
form: piping
form: piped
form: piped
Etymology: From Middle English pīpe, pype (“hollow cylinder or tube used as a conduit or container; duct or vessel of the body; musical instrument; financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, pipe roll”), from Old English pīpe (“pipe (musical instrument); the channel of a small stream”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīpā. Reinforced by Vulgar Latin *pīpa, from Latin pipire, pipiare, pipare, from pīpiō (“to chirp, peep”), of imitative origin. Doublet of fife.
The “storage container” and “liquid measure” senses are derived from Middle English pīpe (“large storage receptacle, particularly for wine; cask, vat; measure of volume”), from pīpe (above) and Old French pipe (“liquid measure”). In specific contexts, calques similar units of measure such as Portuguese pipa.
The verb is from Middle English pīpen, pypyn (“to play a pipe; to make a shrill sound; to speak with a high-pitched tone”), from Old English pīpian (“to pipe”).
Senses: examples: text: [T]he pide Piper with a ſhrill pipe went piping through the ſtreets, and forthwith the rats came all running out of the houſes in great numbers after him; all which hee led into the riuer of Weaſer and therein drowned them.
ref: 1605, R[ichard] V[erstegan], “Of the Antient Manner of Living of Ovr Saxon Ancestors. […]”, in A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence: In Antiquities. Concerning the Most Noble and Renovvmed^([sic – meaning Renovvned]) English Nation. […], printed at Antwerp: By Robert Bruney; […] [a]nd to be sold […], by Iohn Norton and Iohn Bill, →OCLC; republished London: Printed by Iohn Bill, […], 1628, →OCLC, page 85:
text: Piping down the valleys wild / Piping songs of pleasant glee / On a cloud I saw a child. / And he laughing said to me / Pipe a song about a Lamb: / So I piped with merry chear. / Piper pipe that song again – / So I piped, he wept to hear.
ref: 1789, William Blake, “Introduction”, in Songs of Innocence:
glosses: To play (music) on a pipe instrument, such as a bagpipe or a flute.
examples: text: "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.
ref: 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter II, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC, page 17:
glosses: To shout loudly and at high pitch.
examples: text: [W]ith the mariners
A fellow-mariner,—and so had fared
Through twenty seasons; but he had been rear'd
Among the mountains, and he in his heart
Was half a Shepherd on the stormy seas.
Oft in the piping shrouds had Leonard heard
The tones of waterfalls, and inland sounds
Of caves and trees: […]
ref: 1827, William Wordsworth, “The Brothers”, in The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. In Five Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, […], →OCLC, page 125:
glosses: To emit or have a shrill sound like that of a pipe; to whistle.
coordinate_terms: quack
toot
glosses: Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.
topics: engineering
metallurgy
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Of a metal ingot: to become hollow in the process of solidifying.
glosses: To convey or transport (something) by means of pipes.
glosses: To install or configure with pipes.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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, part IV (The Stockade), pages 153–154:
glosses: To dab moisture away from.
examples: text: Soft baroque music pipes through the ornate, dripping-with-gold church sanctuary.
ref: 2009, Susan Van Allen, “Churches Dedicated to Female Saints—Rome”, in 100 Places in Italy Every Woman should Go, Palo Alto, Calif.: Travelers’ Tales, Solas House, →ISBN, section I (The Divine: Goddesses, Saints, and the Blessed Virgin Mary), page 20:
glosses: To lead or conduct as if by pipes, especially by wired transmission.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To directly feed (the output of one program) as input to another program, indicated by the pipe character (|) at the command line.
examples: text: to pipe flowers on to a cupcake
text: This means a quantity of runouts can be made in advance, allowing more time to flat ice and pipe the cake.
ref: 1998, Nicholas Lodge, Janice Murfitt, The International School of Sugarcraft: Book One: Beginners, London: Merehurst Press, →ISBN, page 108:
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: To create or decorate with piping (icing).
examples: text: Pipe down the starboard watch, boatswain, and see that they go.
ref: 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XXIII.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC, page 298:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To order or signal by a note pattern on a boatswain's pipe.
examples: text: How you got everybody lit, pipin' up?
Oh, she bad with no swag, I can pipe her up
Made my last one my last one, I'm wifin' her
ref: 2017 September 7, “Heatin Up”, in Lil Baby (lyrics), My Turn, 1:57:
text: Now this bitch calling me Pacino, she thinks she fifer
The only thing on my mind is tryna pipe her
ref: 2022 October 20, “Bitch”, Sliknik (lyrics), 2:21:
glosses: To have sex with a woman.
raw_tags: of a man
examples: text: So I went and laid down on the grass. While laying there I piped a reeler whom I knew. He had a nark (a policeman's spy) with him. So I went and looked about for my two pals, and told them to look out for F. and his nark.
ref: 1879 October, J[ohn] W[illiam] Horsley, “Autobiography of a Thief in Thieves’ Language”, in Macmillan’s Magazine, volume XL, number 240, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 505, column 1:
text: "Hey, Greek," Roger was saying, his droning voice coming unpleasantly into the other's musings, "did you pipe that? Did you ever see anything like her?"
ref: 1914, Jackson Gregory, Under Handicap:
synonyms: word: behold
word: decern
word: notice
word: pipe
word: spot
glosses: To see.
examples: text: […] who ostensibly was handed an all-day sucker by a warm-hearted bandit in the act of robbing a candy store of $40, there was no moral outcry. "Find the girl," was the immediate response of competing editors to their reporters at police headquarters. The men of the press, who knew a piped story when they saw one, quickly found another little girl, presented her with a lollipop, and photographed her skipping rope in front of the candy store.
ref: 1981, Elie Abel, What's News: The Media in American Society, page 259:
text: If there was a lull in criminal activity, reporters were not above "piping" a story.
ref: 2004, Arthur Gelb, City Room, page 154:
text: Reporters today supposedly do not use "piped" stories because they are unethical.
ref: 2008, Homer L. Hall, Logan H. Aimone, High School Journalism, page 91:
topics: journalism
media
glosses: To invent or embellish (a story).
examples: text: It goes without saying at every turn the cops and I were at it. It was said he may not be a great fighter but he'll stab or pipe anyone, cop or con.
ref: 1986 February 1, anonymous author, “"Fuck Dolls" Fight Back”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 28, page 4:
glosses: To hit with a pipe.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from pipe (verb)
word: pipable
sense: Terms derived from pipe (verb)
word: pipeable
sense: Terms derived from pipe (verb)
word: piped link
sense: Terms derived from pipe (verb)
word: pipe down
sense: Terms derived from pipe (verb)
word: pipe in
sense: Terms derived from pipe (verb)
word: pipe off
sense: Terms derived from pipe (verb)
word: pipe one's eye
sense: Terms derived from pipe (verb)
word: piper
sense: Terms derived from pipe (verb)
word: pipe the eye
sense: Terms derived from pipe (verb)
word: pipe the side
sense: Terms derived from pipe (verb)
word: pipe up
sense: Terms derived from pipe (verb)
word: repipe