piping

Pluralpipings (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   A connected set of pipes that together form a system; pipework.

   Corrosion in the heating piping forced a full replacement.

   The factory's piping carries steam to every part of the plant.

   Similarpipework, plumbing

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Icing squeezed through a narrow nozzle to decorate cakes and pastries.

   The baker finished the wedding cake with delicate piping in pale gold.

   Steady pressure on the bag keeps the piping even.

   Similaricing, frosting

   Note

   Named for the bag it comes from, it covers borders, lettering and raised patterns on cakes and pastries. The craft lies in the consistency. The icing must be firm enough that the line holds its shape after it leaves the nozzle, without slumping, and soft enough to press out evenly.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A decorative trim made of cord wrapped in fabric and sewn along the seams or edges of a garment.

   The uniform was trimmed with gold piping down each sleeve.

   Contrasting piping outlined the curved seams of the dress.

   Similartrim, edging, braid, cording

   Note

   Dressmakers and upholsterers both use this trim. It is a narrow cord wrapped in bias-cut fabric and stitched into a seam so that it stands out along the edge. It decorates and reinforces the line at the same time, on garments, cushions and chairs alike. In upholstery work the same thing is also called welting, which is worth knowing when you read a pattern or a supplier's catalog.

4. 4
   adjective

   Making or having a high, thin sound.

   She heard a piping cry from the nest above.

   His piping tone carried over the noise of the crowd.

   Similarshrill, reedy, squeaky, thin

   Oppositedeep, booming

   Note

   Voices and cries are what it usually describes, and it does not compare: a voice is piping or it is not. It can carry a faintly unflattering edge. Stephen Bates, in his 2022 Guardian obituary of Queen Elizabeth II, recalls the young princess's "piping, stilted voice" on wartime broadcasts. There the word sits beside stilted and cut-glass, and not beside charm.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The sound produced by musical pipes.

   The piping of the shepherd's flute echoed off the hills.

   From the glen came the steady piping of the pipers.

   Similarwhistling, trilling

   Note

   Shelley lets it take a plural. In his "Hymn of Pan," written before 1823, the god boasts that cicadas and lizards fell silent, "listening to my sweet pipings." The plural turns one sound into a series of separate tunes. Both forms are available: the uncountable piping of a distant flute, or countable pipings when each strain is heard as its own song.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   The playing of music, or the making of other sounds, on pipes.

   Her piping on the tin whistle entertained the whole gathering.

   The competition judged each contestant's piping on technique and timing.

   Similarplaying

7. 7
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of pipe.

   The crew is piping gas into the storage tank.

   Piping the signal through the old cables slowed the whole system.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every verb sense of pipe at once: playing a flute or bagpipe, shouting shrilly, a queen bee's high call, gas sent along a line, even a metal ingot turning hollow as it solidifies. The subject or object tells you which is meant. The same spelling also serves as a noun and as the "high-pitched" adjective, so in a piping voice it is not a verb at all.

8. 8
   noununcountable

   The process of an animal first breaking through its eggshell, which comes just before hatching.

   Piping began on the largest egg just before dawn.

   Once piping starts, the chick usually emerges within a day.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A piece cut from a plant to be set or planted; a cutting.

   The gardener rooted a piping from the healthiest plant.

   A piping taken in summer roots quickly in moist sand.

   Similarcutting, slip

   Note

   A gardener's word with an older ring, used especially for pinks and carnations. It is countable (a piping, a tray of pipings) and means the same as cutting. Cutting is the everyday synonym, while piping belongs to older horticultural writing and to growers of those flowers.

10. 10
    noununcountable

    The growing of new plants from cuttings.

    Most of the new stock was produced by piping.

    Piping gives plants identical to the parent.

    Similarpropagation

    Note

    Here the word names the method rather than the piece. The cutting itself is what you hold in your hand, and this is what you do with it. It is vegetative, asexual reproduction, so a bed raised this way is a set of clones of one parent. Used like this it behaves mostly as a mass noun, as in propagated by piping.

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