# pipe

Pronunciation: say "PYP" /ˈpaɪp/

## Noun

1. A rigid tube that carries water, steam, gas, or other fluids, as in plumbing and many other systems.
   - Simple: A hard tube that carries water, gas, or other liquids and gases from one place to another.
   - _Engineers installed new pipes to carry steam across the factory floor._
   - _A single pipe runs from the well to the storage tank._
2. 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.
   - Simple: A tube with a small bowl at one end, used to smoke tobacco.
   - _She packed her pipe with a fragrant blend before settling into her chair._
   - _Old sailors often kept clay pipes tucked in their coat pockets._
3. A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often with holes to adjust the pitch, sounded by blowing into it.
   - Simple: A musical tube that you blow into to make sounds, often with holes to change the notes.
   - _The musician carved a wooden pipe that could play a full octave._
   - _Folk bands often pair a drum with a high, bright pipe._
4. A tube that produces sound in an organ when air is forced through it.
   - Simple: One of the many tubes in an organ that makes a sound when air passes through it.
   - _Restorers cleaned every pipe in the cathedral organ before the concert._
   - _A faulty valve left one pipe silent during the recital._
11. A mechanism that lets one program communicate with another by sending its output as the second program's input.
   - Simple: A way for one computer program to send its output straight into another program.
   - _The developer connected the commands with a pipe to filter the log output._
   - _Unix shells implement pipes that stream data between processes._
13. The vertical-bar character, written |, used in writing and computing.
   - Simple: The straight up-and-down line mark, written as |.
   - _In the table's source code, each cell is separated by a pipe._
   - _He accidentally typed a pipe instead of a slash._
14. One of the upright posts forming the goal, in sports such as lacrosse and hockey.
   - Simple: One of the upright posts that make up a goal.
   - _The goalie hugged the near pipe to cut off the angle._
   - _She rang a shot off the pipe in the final minute._
15. A high-pitched sound, especially the call or song of a bird.
   - Simple: A high, sharp sound, like the call of a small bird.
   - _The clear pipe of a blackbird carried across the garden._
   - _A shrill pipe from the nest told us the chicks were hungry._
16. Any tube-shaped channel within the human body, for example an artery or vein or the windpipe.
   - Simple: A tube inside the body, such as a blood vessel or the airway to the lungs.
   - _The surgeon described the artery as the main pipe feeding the lower body._
   - _My water went down the wrong pipe, and I started choking._
18. A high-capacity data connection or broadband Internet link. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A fast internet connection that carries a lot of data.
   - _The data center runs on a fat pipe that handles millions of requests._
   - _Streaming in 4K needs a wide pipe to avoid buffering._
19. Beneath a volcano, a vertical channel through the Earth's crust that magma has traveled up, often later choked with volcanic breccia.
   - Simple: A tall, narrow channel through the Earth's crust below a volcano that magma has flowed through.
   - _The eroded pipe now stands exposed as a steep rock tower._
   - _Kimberlite pipes are the primary source of mined diamonds._
21. A man's penis. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A slang word for a man's penis.
   - _He bragged in the bar about the size of his pipe._
   - _Grabbing a towel in the locker room, he laughed and said nobody needed a look at his pipe._
23. A large cask for wine, especially port, or the quantity it holds, usually about 105 imperial gallons (126 US gallons).
   - Simple: A very large barrel for wine, or the amount of wine it holds.
   - _A pipe of port aged quietly in the merchant's cellar._
   - _The vintner tapped the pipe to check whether the wine had matured._
9. The pitch or tone of someone's voice; the particular sound a voice makes when it speaks or sings.
   - Simple: How high or low someone's voice is, and how it sounds.
   - _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._

## Verb

5. To create or decorate something with icing squeezed through a shaped nozzle.
   - Simple: To squeeze icing through a narrow tip to decorate a cake or other food.
   - _The baker piped delicate rosettes across the wedding cake._
   - _Pipe a border of buttercream around each cupcake._
6. To deliver or move something through a pipe or pipeline.
   - Simple: To move a liquid or gas from one place to another using pipes.
   - _The utility pipes natural gas across hundreds of miles to city homes._
   - _Engineers pipe cooling water through the reactor to carry away heat._
10. To use a flute, bagpipe, or similar pipe instrument to perform music.
   - Simple: To make music with a flute, bagpipe, or similar kind of pipe instrument.
   - _A lone musician piped a mournful air as the procession passed._
   - _Highland bands pipe at festivals throughout the summer._
7. To carry or transmit something, especially sound or signals, as if through pipes.
   - Simple: To carry something like sound or signals from place to place, as if through tubes.
   - _Broadcasters pipe live coverage to millions of homes at once._
   - _The system piped the captain's orders to every part of the ship._
12. To feed the output of one program directly into another as input, marked by the pipe character (|) at the command line.
   - Simple: To send the output of one program straight into another program as its input.
   - _He piped the search results into a counter to tally the matches._
   - _Pipe the log file through a filter to find the errors._
8. To make a high, shrill sound, or to say something in a high-pitched voice.
   - Simple: To make a high whistling sound, or to speak in a high voice.
   - _The fledglings pipe whenever a parent lands near the nest._
   - _A thin reed piped in the wind as we crossed the marsh._
17. To fit or set up a place with pipes for carrying liquids or gas.
   - Simple: To fit a place with tubes that carry water or gas.
   - _Engineers pipe each unit for both water and drainage._
   - _The contractor piped the greenhouse so the plants could be watered automatically._
20. To strike someone or something with a length of pipe.
   - Simple: To hit someone or something with a metal or plastic tube.
22. To have intercourse with a woman; to sleep with her. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A rude slang word meaning to have sex with a woman.
   - _All the guy wanted to do that night was pipe someone._
   - _He boasted to his friends that he had piped her after the club._
24. To give an order or signal aboard ship by sounding a pattern of notes on a boatswain's pipe.
   - Simple: To give an order on a ship by playing a pattern of notes on a small whistle.
   - _At sunset the boatswain would pipe the crew to supper with a few sharp notes._
   - _The boatswain piped the side as the admiral came aboard._

## Other meanings

- (noun) Decorative edging stitched along the hems or seams of a fabric object, often in a contrasting color.
- (noun) A short tubular pasta with a curved shape, similar to macaroni.
- (noun) An elongated or irregular mass or vein of ore within the surrounding rock.
- (verb) Of a metal ingot, to form an internal cavity as it cools and solidifies.
- (noun) An unsigned, often slanderous attack on someone, written on a sheet of paper that was rolled up and dropped in a public place to be found and passed around.
- (noun) The stretch traveled between two breaks, each long enough to smoke a pipe, used as a rough measure of distance.
- (noun) A telephone, or a phone line.
- (verb) Of queen bees, to give a shrill call, mostly just before or after leaving the cell.
- (verb) To wipe or blot something dry.
- (verb) To look at or notice someone or something.
- (verb) To make up a story, or add false details to one.

## 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."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/pipe (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).