piped

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of pipe.

   The engineers piped steam through the factory to heat each room.

   Soft music was piped into the lobby all afternoon.

   Note

   One regular form does double duty: the past (the band piped a reel) and the participle that builds perfects and passives (music was piped into the lobby). The verb can mean playing a pipe, shrilling like one, a queen bee's call or carrying something through pipes, so context decides which is meant. The passive of the carrying verb shades into the 'conveyed by pipe' adjective: piped water is simply water that has been piped.

2. 2
   adjective

   Brought to a place by means of a pipe rather than carried or delivered another way.

   Piped natural gas now reaches most neighborhoods in the city.

   Residents far prefer piped water to hauling buckets from the well.

   Similarrunning

   Note

   An adjective that sits before its noun and gathers utilities into a single phrase: piped water, piped gas, piped services. In a diesel depot, the piped services can cover lubricating oil, compressed air, radiator coolant and both hard and soft water. It takes no degrees, because a supply is either piped or it is not, and more piped or very piped will sound wrong to a careful ear.

3. 3
   adjective

   Having the long, hollow, tubular shape of a pipe.

   The reef coral forms clusters of piped, hollow branches.

   Glassblowers shaped the vase with a narrow, piped neck.

   Similartubular

4. 4
   adjective

   Of a rail vehicle that carries a through brake pipe but has no brakes operated by that pipe.

   Railways often placed a piped vehicle between braked cars to keep the brake line continuous.

   Each piped wagon let the air pass through while contributing no braking force of its own.

   Note

   A railway term best understood beside its partner, fitted. A fitted wagon carries full vacuum-brake equipment. A piped wagon carries only the through pipe, so it can be marshalled into a vacuum-braked train without breaking the brake connections, yet it adds no braking of its own. Keep it apart from the everyday 'conveyed by pipe' sense, because here the pipe serves the train, not the wagon.

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