Word.ws English Dictionary

pipe the eye

pipe the eye verb: to weep.

Verb

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

  1. (archaic, idiomatic) To weep.
    • He first began to eye his pipe, / And then to pipe his eye.a. 1845, Thomas Hood, Faithless Sally Brown

Forms of pipe the eye

third-person singular presentpipes the eye
present participlepiping the eye
past participlepiped the eye
pastpiped the eye
alternative formpipe one's eye

Origin of pipe the eye

A metaphor alluding to the boatswain's pipe, which calls to duty.

Questions about pipe the eye

What does pipe the eye mean?
Pipe the eye means to weep.
What part of speech is pipe the eye?
Pipe the eye is a verb.
What is the past tense of pipe the eye?
The past tense of pipe the eye is piped the eye.

Words near pipe the eye in the dictionary

  1. pipe rolls
  2. pipe snake
  3. pipe snakes
  4. pipe spool
  5. pipe spools
  6. pipe the eye
  7. pipe the side
  8. pipe tomahawk
  9. pipe tomahawks
  10. pipe tong
  11. pipe tongs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pipe the eye (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.

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