pipe up

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To speak up, especially in a robust, assertive manner; to say something loudly and suddenly.
   • "You seem to have a lot to say," remarked Silver, spitting far into the air. "Pipe up and let me hear it, or lay to."1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
   • Once I asked a seventeen-year-old singer something that wasn't on the list, which caused her manager to pipe up: "That wasn't what we agreed on. She doesn't have to answer that."1994, Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance
2. (intransitive) To begin singing or playing musical notes on a pipe or similar wind instrument.
   • [T]he frogs in a neighboring marsh began to pipe up for the evening concert.1871, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 12, in Little Men: […], Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC
   • But presently the gray dawn stole over the world, the birds piped up, then the sun rose and poured light and comfort all around.1907, Mark Twain, chapter 16, in Chapters from My Autobiography
3. (intransitive, usually) To begin to blow more vigorously.
   • Once, for ten minutes, the sun shone at midday, and ten minutes afterward a new gale was piping up.1911, Jack London, “Make Westing”, in When God Laughs and Other Stories
4. (rare, transitive) To call, awaken, or summon, as with a musical instrument.
   • Yet beyond turning my blood cold for a moment, it gave me little trouble, for evil tales have hung about the church; and though I did not set much store by the old yarns of Blackbeard piping up his crew, yet I thought strange things might well go on among the graves at night. And so I never budged...[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC