pipe
/ˈpaɪp/ noun, verb, proper noun
- noun (music) A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often lined with holes to allow for adjustment in pitch, sounded by blowing into the tube.
- noun (music) A tube used to produce sound in an organ; an organ pipe.
- noun The key or sound of the voice.
- noun A high-pitched sound, especially of a bird.
- noun A rigid tube that transports water, steam, or other fluid, as used in plumbing and numerous other applications.
- noun (especially in informal contexts) A water pipe. “A burst pipe flooded my bathroom.”
- noun A tubular passageway in the human body such as a blood vessel or the windpipe.
- noun (slang) A man's penis.
- verb (ambitransitive) To play (music) on a pipe instrument, such as a bagpipe or a flute.
- verb (intransitive) To shout loudly and at high pitch.
- verb (intransitive) To emit or have a shrill sound like that of a pipe; to whistle.
- verb (intransitive) Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.
- verb (intransitive, metallurgy) Of a metal ingot: to become hollow in the process of solidifying.
- verb (transitive) To convey or transport (something) by means of pipes.
- verb (transitive) To install or configure with pipes.
- verb (transitive) To dab moisture away from.
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. Named after the calumet (pipe) smoked by native Americans.
Synonyms
tube butt pan bar vertical bar vertical line virgule blower behold decern notice spot tobacco pipe pipage piping organ pipe pipework shriek shrill pipe up
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. Displaced native Old English fealh and Old English þrūh. Doublet of fife.
Cognate with Dutch pijp, German Pfeife, Danish pibe, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk pipe, Swedish pipa, Faroese and Icelandic pípa.
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”).
English surname, from the noun pipe.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A wind instrument of music, consisting of a tube or tubes of straw, reed, wood, or metal; any tube which produces musical sounds; as, a shepherd's pipe; the pipe of an organ. "Tunable as sylvan pipe." Milton.
- noun Any long tube or hollow body of wood, metal, earthenware, or the like: especially, one used as a conductor of water, steam, gas, etc.
- verb To play on a pipe, fife, flute, or other tubular wind instrument of music.
- verb To call, convey orders, etc., by means of signals on a pipe or whistle carried by a boatswain.
Etymology [AS. pipe, probably fr. L. pipare, pipire, to chirp; of imitative origin. Cf. Peep, Pibroch, Fife.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pipe”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details