Word.ws English Dictionary

pipe

UK/ˈpaɪp/

pipe noun: a wind instrument consisting of a tube, often lined with holes to allow for adjustment in pitch, sounded by blowing into the tube.

pipe: meanings relating to a wind instrument
Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

pipe (plural pipes)

  1. A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often lined with holes to allow for adjustment in pitch, sounded by blowing into the tube.
    • Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
      From glen to glen, and down the mountain side,
      The summer's gone and all the roses falling,
      It's you, it's you must go and I must bide.1913, “Danny Boy: Song Adapted from an Old Irish Air”, Fred[eric] E[dward] Weatherly (lyrics), New York, N.Y.; London: Boosey & Co […], →OCLC, page 1
  2. A tube used to produce sound in an organ; an organ pipe.
    • Most theater organs use many sets (ranks) of reed and flue pipes of various shapes, pipe scales, and so forth to generate a variety of timbres.1980, Harvey E[lliott] White, Donald H. White, “Wind Instruments”, in Physics and Music: The Science of Musical Sound, Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders College Pub./Holt, Rinehart and Winston, →ISBN, page...
  3. The key or sound of the voice.
    • For they ſhall yet belye thy happy yeeres,
      That ſay thou art a man: Dianas lip
      Is not more ſmooth, and rubious: thy ſmall pipe
      Is as the maidens organ, ſhrill, and ſound,
      And all is ſemblatiue a womans part.c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  4. A high-pitched sound, especially of a bird.
    • Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
      The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds
      To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
      The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
      So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part IV”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, pages 66–67
  5. A rigid tube that transports water, steam, or other fluid, as used in plumbing and numerous other applications.
    • A standard Flight Refuelling Ltd Mk 8 probe nozzle was attached to the probe structural tube and fuel pipe. The pipe was double-walled, and passed through into the fuselage aft of the flight deck; […] A non-return valve was fitted within the fuel pipe aft of the probe nozzle, thus preventing any...2006, Richard M. Tanner, “Lockheed Tristar: Single-point Tanker”, in History of Air-to-air Refuelling, Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Books, →ISBN, part 2 (Technology)...
    Synonyms:
    tube
  6. (especially) A water pipe.
    • A burst pipe flooded my bathroom.
    • Corrosion control can be accomplished in distribution systems by adding compounds that form a protective film on the pipe surface, thereby providing a barrier between the water and the pipe.2000, Richard L. Valentine et al., “Chlorine and Monochloramine Decay in Batch and Loop Experiments”, in The Role of the Pipe–Water Interface in DBP Formation and Disinfectant Loss, Iowa City, Ia....
    Synonyms:
    tube
  7. A tubular passageway in the human body such as a blood vessel or the windpipe.
    • Amongst the vessels of the human body, the pipe which conveys the saliva from the place where it is made, to the place where it is wanted, deserves to be reckoned amongst the most intelligible pieces of mechanism with which we are acquainted.1802, William Paley, “Of the Vessels of Animal Bodies”, in Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Philadelphia, Pa.: John Morgan, […], →OCLC, pages 125–126
    Synonyms:
    tube
  8. (slang) A man's penis.
    • He grabs my legs and throws them over his shoulders, putting his big pipe inside me […]2006, Monique A. Williams, Neurotica: An Honest Examination into Urban Sexual Relations, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu Enterprises, →ISBN, page 7
    • He punctuated his demand with a deep thrust up CJ's hole. His giant pipe drove almost all the way in, pulsing against his fingers beside it.2010, Eric Summers, editor, Teammates, Sarasota, Fla.: StarBooks, →ISBN, page 90
    Synonyms:
    tube
  9. A large container for storing liquids or foodstuffs; now especially a vat or cask of cider or wine. (See a diagram comparing cask sizes.)
    • Meronym: pipestave
    • Mr Barretto informed us he had shipped two hundred and forty pipes of Madeira [which] not only impeded the ship's progress by making her too deep in the water, but greatly increased her motion.1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 329
  10. The contents of such a vessel, as a liquid measure, sometimes set at 126 wine gallons; half a tun.
    • Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31½ gallons, a rundlet 18½ gallons.1882, James E[dwin] Thorold Rogers, “Weights and Measures”, in A History of Agriculture and Prices in England from the Year after the Oxford Parliament (1259) to the Commencement of the Continental...
    Synonyms:
    butt
  11. Decorative edging stitched to the hems or seams of an object made of fabric (clothing, hats, curtains, pillows, etc.), often in a contrasting color; piping.
  12. A type of pasta similar to macaroni.
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  1. A vertical conduit through the Earth's crust below a volcano through which magma has passed, often filled with volcanic breccia.
    • While the pipe of a conventional volcano may extend down 50 miles or so, the volcanic pipes that pick up diamonds along the way had to go much deeper, perhaps as deep as 300 miles.1995 March, Jon Bowermaster, “Diamond Rush in the Arctic”, in Fred Abatemarco, editor, Popular Science, volume 246, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Times Mirror Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 83, columns 2–3
    • Some researchers think that the warming was caused as kimberlite pipes (volcanic vents originating deep in the Earth’s mantle) reached the surface near Lac de Gras in northern Canada and released huge amounts of carbon.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 54
    Synonyms:
    pan
  2. One of the goalposts of the goal.
  3. An elongated or irregular body or vein of ore.
  4. (Australia, colloquial, historical) An anonymous satire or essay, insulting and frequently libellous, written on a piece of paper which was rolled up and left somewhere public where it could be found and thus spread, to embarrass the author's enemies.
    • On Thursday Mr. William Bland, formerly a Surgeon in the Royal Navy, […] was brought to trial on a charge of libelling the Governor [Lachlan Macquarie], by the composition and publishing of various letters and verses contained in a manuscript book dropped on the Parramatta Road—and thence brought...1818 September 26, “Sydney. [Criminal Court.]”, in Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, volume XVI, number 775, Sydney, N.S.W.: By authority [government printer], →OCLC, page 3, columns 2–3
  5. A mechanism that enables one program to communicate with another by sending its output to the other as input.
  6. (slang) A data backbone, or broadband Internet access.
    • A fat pipe is a high-bandwidth connection.
  7. (metonymically) The character |.
    • While parseing an xml document( sax parser ), trying to replace ' | ' with ' & ' , it finds the pipe, but won't replace with amper.2001 July 13, JimmyMac, “java and xml”, in comp.lang.java.help (Usenet)
  8. A hollow stem with a bowl at one end used for smoking, especially a tobacco pipe but also including various other forms such as a water pipe.
    • Sitting in among the wares he dealt in, by a charcoal-stove, made of old bricks, was a gray-haired rascal, nearly seventy years of age; who had screened himself from the cold air without, by a frousy curtaining of miscellaneous tatters, hung upon a line; and smoked his pipe in all the luxury of...1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 129
    • In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle—a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening for a pipe and a cheerful glass.1892, Walter Besant, “The Select Circle”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 46
  9. (Canada, US, colloquial, historical) The distance travelled between two rest periods during which one could smoke a pipe.
  10. (slang) A telephone.
    • “Let's try to get on the pipe to Admiral Collier again.”1980, Charles D. Taylor, Show of Force
    Synonyms:
    blower

Verb

pipe (third-person singular simple present pipes, present participle piping, simple past and past participle piped)

  1. (ambitransitive) To play (music) on a pipe instrument, such as a bagpipe or a flute.
    • [T]he pide Piper with a ſhrill pipe went piping through the ſtreets, and forthwith the rats came all running out of the houſes in great numbers after him; all which hee led into the riuer of Weaſer and therein drowned them.1605, R[ichard] V[erstegan], “Of the Antient Manner of Living of Ovr Saxon Ancestors. […]”, in A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence: In Antiquities. Concerning the Most Noble and Renovvmed^([sic –...
    • Piping down the valleys wild / Piping songs of pleasant glee / On a cloud I saw a child. / And he laughing said to me / Pipe a song about a Lamb: / So I piped with merry chear. / Piper pipe that song again – / So I piped, he wept to hear.1789, William Blake, “Introduction”, in Songs of Innocence
  2. (intransitive) To shout loudly and at high pitch.
    • "Ar—cher—Ja—cob!" Johnny piped after her, pivoting round on his heel, and strewing the grass and leaves in his hands as if he were sowing seed.1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter II, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC, page 17
  3. (intransitive) To emit or have a shrill sound like that of a pipe; to whistle.
    • [W]ith the mariners
      A fellow-mariner,—and so had fared
      Through twenty seasons; but he had been rear'd
      Among the mountains, and he in his heart
      Was half a Shepherd on the stormy seas.
      Oft in the piping shrouds had Leonard heard
      The tones of waterfalls, and inland sounds
      Of caves and trees: […]1827, William Wordsworth, “The Brothers”, in The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. In Five Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, […], →OCLC, page 125
  4. (intransitive) Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.
  5. (intransitive) Of a metal ingot: to become hollow in the process of solidifying.
  6. (transitive) To convey or transport (something) by means of pipes.
  7. (transitive) To install or configure with pipes.
  8. (transitive) To dab moisture away from.
    • Our chimney was a square hole in the roof; it was but a little part of the smoke that found its way out, and the rest eddied about the house, and kept us coughing and piping the eye.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins: The Garrison in the Stockade”, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part IV...
  9. (figuratively, transitive) To lead or conduct as if by pipes, especially by wired transmission.
    • Soft baroque music pipes through the ornate, dripping-with-gold church sanctuary.2009, Susan Van Allen, “Churches Dedicated to Female Saints—Rome”, in 100 Places in Italy Every Woman should Go, Palo Alto, Calif.: Travelers’ Tales, Solas House, →ISBN, section I (The Divine...
  10. (Unix, transitive) To directly feed (the output of one program) as input to another program, indicated by the pipe character (|) at the command line.
    • We can just pipe the output of our command into sed to get rid of any leading whitespaces.
  11. (transitive) To create or decorate with piping (icing).
    • to pipe flowers on to a cupcake
    • This means a quantity of runouts can be made in advance, allowing more time to flat ice and pipe the cake.1998, Nicholas Lodge, Janice Murfitt, The International School of Sugarcraft: Book One: Beginners, London: Merehurst Press, →ISBN, page 108
  12. (transitive) To order or signal by a note pattern on a boatswain's pipe.
    • Pipe down the starboard watch, boatswain, and see that they go.1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XXIII.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC, page 298
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  1. (slang, transitive) To have sex with a woman.
    • How you got everybody lit, pipin' up?
      Oh, she bad with no swag, I can pipe her up
      Made my last one my last one, I'm wifin' her2017 September 7, “Heatin Up”, in Lil Baby (lyrics), My Turn, 1:57
    • Now this bitch calling me Pacino, she thinks she fifer
      The only thing on my mind is tryna pipe her2022 October 20, “Bitch”, Sliknik (lyrics), 2:21
  2. (dated, slang, transitive) To see.
    • So I went and laid down on the grass. While laying there I piped a reeler whom I knew. He had a nark (a policeman's spy) with him. So I went and looked about for my two pals, and told them to look out for F. and his nark.1879 October, J[ohn] W[illiam] Horsley, “Autobiography of a Thief in Thieves’ Language”, in Macmillan’s Magazine, volume XL, number 240, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 505, column 1
    • "Hey, Greek," Roger was saying, his droning voice coming unpleasantly into the other's musings, "did you pipe that? Did you ever see anything like her?"1914, Jackson Gregory, Under Handicap
    Synonyms:
    behold, decern, notice, spot
  3. (US, slang) To invent or embellish (a story).
    • […] who ostensibly was handed an all-day sucker by a warm-hearted bandit in the act of robbing a candy store of $40, there was no moral outcry. "Find the girl," was the immediate response of competing editors to their reporters at police headquarters. The men of the press, who knew a piped story...1981, Elie Abel, What's News: The Media in American Society, page 259
    • If there was a lull in criminal activity, reporters were not above "piping" a story.2004, Arthur Gelb, City Room, page 154
  4. (transitive) To hit with a pipe.
    • It goes without saying at every turn the cops and I were at it. It was said he may not be a great fighter but he'll stab or pipe anyone, cop or con.1986 February 1, anonymous author, “"Fuck Dolls" Fight Back”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 28, page 4

Proper noun capitalized: Pipe

Pipe

  1. A surname.
  2. An unincorporated community in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. Named after the calumet (pipe) smoked by native Americans.

Noun (2) capitalized: PIPE

PIPE (plural PIPEs)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of private investment in public equity.

pipe meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

pipe in Hindi

rigid tube
पाइप pāip, नल nal

pipe in Tamil

type of wind instrument
ஊதுகுழல் ūtukuḻal, குழல் kuḻal
rigid tube
குழாய் kuḻāy
high-pitched sound, especially of a bird
கீச்சு kīccu
water pipe
குழாய் kuḻāy

pipe in Urdu

rigid tube
پائِپ pāip, نال nāl

pipe in Bengali

rigid tube
নল nol
More languagesFewer languages
pipe in Sanskrit
पिच्छोरा picchorā, मुरली muralī
pipe in Pashto
بالکه bālka, نل nal
pipe in Arabic
مِزْمَار mizmār, مَاسُورَة māsūra, أُنْبُوب ʔunbūb, أُنْبُوبَة ʔunbūba
pipe in Malay
paip
pipe in Indonesian
pipa
pipe in Persian
مولو mulu, تنبوشه tambuše, موری muri
pipe in Thai
ท่อ tɔ̂ɔ, กระบอก grà-bɔ̀ɔk, ไพป์, ขีดตั้ง
pipe in Vietnamese
ống sáo, ống tiêu, kèn túi, ống
pipe in Myanmar
ပြွန် prwan, ပိုက် puik

Examples of pipe in a sentence

  • A standard Flight Refuelling Ltd Mk 8 probe nozzle was attached to the probe structural tube and fuel pipe.2006, Richard M. Tanner, “Lockheed Tristar: Single-point Tanker”, in History of Air-to-air Refuelling, Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen &...
  • He laughed as he knelt down between Duncan's splayed thighs and tore open a packaged condom, then rolled it down over his big fuck-pipe.2011, Mickey Erlach, Gym Buddies & Buff Boys, Sarasota, Fla.: StarBooks, →ISBN, page 64:
  • But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts.1846, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado”, in The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, volume I, New York: W. J. Widdleton, published 1849...
  • Cluer [an earthenware pipe maker] of the Brickfield Hill.1818 September 26, “Sydney. [Criminal Court.]”, in Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, volume XVI, number 775, Sydney, N.S.W....

All 40 example sentences with pipe

Synonyms of pipe

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of pipe

Forms of pipe

Noun
pluralpipes
pluralPIPEs
Verb
third-person singular presentpipes
present participlepiping
past participlepiped
pastpiped

Past tense of pipe: piped

Plural of pipe: pipes

Origin of pipe

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.

Words formed from pipe

Phrases with pipe

107 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with pipe

7 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pipe

What does pipe mean?
Pipe means a wind instrument consisting of a tube, often lined with holes to allow for adjustment in pitch, sounded by blowing into the tube.
What is pipe in Hindi?
Pipe in Hindi is पाइप (pāip), नल (nal). See Pipe meaning in Hindi.
How do you use pipe in a sentence?
A standard Flight Refuelling Ltd Mk 8 probe nozzle was attached to the probe structural tube and fuel pipe.
What part of speech is pipe?
Pipe can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce pipe?
Pipe is pronounced /ˈpaɪp/ (UK).
What is the plural of pipe?
The plural of pipe is pipes.

Words near pipe in the dictionary

  1. pipamazine
  2. pipamperone
  3. pipas
  4. pipazetate
  5. PIPCU
  6. pipe
  7. pipe band
  8. pipe bands
  9. pipe bender
  10. pipe benders
  11. pipe bomb

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pipe (page history and authors); Pipe (page history and authors); PIPE (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pipe.ogg, en-au-pipe.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pipe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pipe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.