DictionaryAI

pipe

PYP/ˈpaɪp/

Pluralpipes

Verbpipes, piping, piped

35 meanings of pipe

Practice

  1. 1
    nouncountable
    A rigid tube that carries water, steam, gas, or other fluids, as in plumbing and many other systems.

    Engineers installed new pipes to carry steam across the factory floor.

    A single pipe runs from the well to the storage tank.

    Similartube, conduit, duct

  2. 2
    smokingnouncountable
    A smoking device made of a hollow stem with a bowl at one end, usually for tobacco; the name also covers other kinds, such as the water pipe.

    She packed her pipe with a fragrant blend before settling into her chair.

    Old sailors often kept clay pipes tucked in their coat pockets.

    Note

    The smoking sense can also name a smoke, a spell of smoking. Walter Besant's The Ivory Gate (1892) describes a tavern circle who "met every evening for a pipe and a cheerful glass," meaning a pipeful smoked in company. The same habit once gave North American travelers a pipe as a distance, the stretch traveled, often by canoe, between rests long enough to smoke one. Clay, briar and water pipes all count, though the bare word especially suggests tobacco.

  3. 3
    wind instrumentnouncountable
    A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often with holes to adjust the pitch, sounded by blowing into it.

    The musician carved a wooden pipe that could play a full octave.

    Folk bands often pair a drum with a high, bright pipe.

    Note

    In the plural it can stand for the instrument and its sound at once, as in Frederic Weatherly's "Danny Boy" (1913): "the pipes, the pipes are calling / From glen to glen."

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

  4. 4
    nouncountable
    A tube that produces sound in an organ when air is forced through it.

    Restorers cleaned every pipe in the cathedral organ before the concert.

    A faulty valve left one pipe silent during the recital.

    Note

    Organ builders sort these tubes into flue and reed pipes and group them in ranks, sets of matching pipes. Harvey and Donald White's Physics and Music (1980) explains that combining ranks of different shapes and scales gives a theater organ its variety of timbres. Unlike the hand-held woodwind, an organ pipe is sounded by the instrument's air supply, not the player's breath.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

    • Organ pipes are classified as flue or reed pipes. organ.byu.edu
    • Ranks are sets of pipes with matching tonal qualities. en.wikipedia.org
    • Harvey E. White and Donald H. White wrote Physics and Music: The Science of Musical Sound. ci.nii.ac.jp
    • Physics and Music was originally published in 1980. ci.nii.ac.jp
    • The book explains that theater organs obtain varied timbres from ranks of pipes with different shapes and scales. en.wiktionary.org
    • An organ pipe receives pressurized air from the organ's wind system. en.wikipedia.org
  5. 5
    icingverbtransitive
    To create or decorate something with icing squeezed through a shaped nozzle.

    The baker piped delicate rosettes across the wedding cake.

    Pipe a border of buttercream around each cupcake.

    UsageYou pipe icing onto something, or pipe the cake itself: pipe rosettes onto a cake.

    Note

    The squeezed icing is itself called piping, the same word used for decorative edging on fabric. Bakers fill a cone-shaped piping bag and swap metal tips to shape stars, shells, leaves or plain lines of frosting.

  6. 6
    carry liquidsverbtransitive
    To deliver or move something through a pipe or pipeline.

    The utility pipes natural gas across hundreds of miles to city homes.

    Engineers pipe cooling water through the reactor to carry away heat.

    UsageOften with into, through or to: gas piped to homes, water piped into a house.

    Similarconvey, carry, pump, channel, transport

  7. 7
    verbfigurativelytransitive
    To carry or transmit something, especially sound or signals, as if through pipes.

    Broadcasters pipe live coverage to millions of homes at once.

    The system piped the captain's orders to every part of the ship.

    UsageCommon in piped music and passive constructions: music is piped into a room or through speakers.

    Similartransmit, broadcast, relay, channel, beam

  8. 8
    verbintransitive
    To make a high, shrill sound, or to say something in a high-pitched voice.

    The fledglings pipe whenever a parent lands near the nest.

    A thin reed piped in the wind as we crossed the marsh.

    UsageCompare pipe up, to start speaking suddenly: a small voice piped up from the back.

    Similarcheep, peep, chirp, squeak, whistle

    Note

    A sound verb that needs no musician at all: wind, birds and thin reeds can all pipe. The participle can work as an adjective, as in William Wordsworth's "The Brothers," where a sailor hears tones in "the piping shrouds," the ship's rigging whistling on stormy seas. Its noun partner is the high call of a bird.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • William Wordsworth's poem The Brothers contains the quoted phrase and describes the sailor Leonard hearing remembered inland sounds in the shrouds. en.wikisource.org
    • The stormy-seas setting is present in the poem. en.wikisource.org
    • The shrouds are the ship's supporting rigging. en.wiktionary.org
  9. 9
    voice tonenouncountable
    The pitch or tone of someone's voice; the particular sound a voice makes when it speaks or sings.

    At thirteen he still spoke in a reedy pipe that jumped an octave whenever he got excited.

    The old tenor's pipe had thinned with the years, yet the audience knew it from the first note he sang.

    UsageUsually with an adjective for the voice: a reedy pipe, a thin pipe, her clear pipe.

    Similarvoice, tone

    Note

    Here the voice is heard as an instrument, a figure taken from the wind instrument, so the word leans toward light, high voices. In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (c. 1601–1602), a youth whom others call a man is told that his small pipe is like a maiden's organ, "shrill, and sound", with organ, too, standing for the voice.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • The passage presents the human voice through the image of a musical pipe. shakespearemusic.bham.ac.uk
    • Twelfth Night was first published in 1623. The earlier dating concerns its composition. folger.edu
    • Orsino addresses Viola, disguised as the young Cesario, referring to people who call Cesario a man and comparing Cesario's small pipe to a maiden's organ. gutenberg.org
    • In this comparison, organ stands for the voice. folger.edu

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English pīpe (a hollow tube, a bodily vessel, or a musical instrument), from Old English pīpe, from Proto-West Germanic *pīpā, and reinforced by Vulgar Latin *pīpa (from Latin pipire/pipiare, ultimately from pīpiō "to chirp, peep," of imitative origin); it is a doublet of fife. The "storage container" and "liquid measure" senses come from Middle English pīpe (a large cask or measure of volume), partly from Old French pipe, and the verb is from Old English pīpian "to pipe."

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

  • Pipe descends through Middle English pīpe and Old English pīpe from Proto-West Germanic *pīpā; the Middle English noun included tubular, bodily and musical senses. en.wiktionary.org
  • The word was reinforced by Vulgar Latin *pīpa, derived from Latin pipire/pipiare and ultimately pīpiō. en.wiktionary.org
  • Latin pīpiō means to chirp or peep and has an imitative origin. en.wiktionary.org
  • Pipe and fife are doublets. en.wiktionary.org
  • The container and liquid-measure senses descend from Middle English pīpe, meaning a large cask or volume measure, partly through Old French pipe. en.wiktionary.org
  • The English verb descends from Old English pīpian, meaning to pipe. en.wiktionary.org