pipes

Noun

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.

   Synonyms:

   tube

See all 40 meanings of pipe