pipe

UK: /ˈpaɪp/ US: /paɪp/ ,(pīp)

Inflections of 'pipe' (v): (⇒ conjugate)

pipes

v 3rd person singular

piping

v pres p

piped

v past

piped

v past p

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

pipe¹ /paɪp/   n., v., piped, pip•ing. 
n. [countable]

1. a tube or cylinder of metal or other material, used for carrying water, gas, etc.:
   One of the pipes in the kitchen had sprung a leak.
2. a tube of wood, clay, or other material, with a small bowl at one end, used for smoking tobacco, etc.:
   He filled his pipe with tobacco.
3. Music and Dance
   • a musical wind instrument, as a flute, made of a single tube.
   • one of the tubes through which air is forced and from which the tones of an organ are produced:
     Some of the organ pipes are twenty feet high.
   • pipes, [plural] bagpipe.
4. Informal Terms pipes, the human vocal cords or the voice, esp. as used in singing.

v. 

5. Music and Dance to play on a pipe: [~ + object]
   He piped a haunting tune on the bagpipes.
   [no object]
   The band had been piping together for several years.
6. to speak in a high-pitched or piercing tone:
   [~ + object] to pipe a command.
7. Civil Engineering to carry or send by or as if by pipes or by an electrical wire or cable:
   [~ + object] to pipe music into the room.
8. Slang Terms pipe down, [no object] to stop talking;
   be quiet.
9. pipe up, to make oneself heard, esp. as to get attention if one is being ignored* speak up: [no object]
   He kept piping up with new ideas.
   [used with quotations]
   "But that's just what we like doing,'' he piped up.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

pipe¹  (pīp), n., v., piped, pip•ing. 
n. 

1. a hollow cylinder of metal, wood, or other material, used for the conveyance of water, gas, steam, petroleum, etc.
2. a tube of wood, clay, hard rubber, or other material, with a small bowl at one end, used for smoking tobacco, opium, etc.
3. a quantity, as of tobacco, that fills the bowl of such a smoking utensil.
4. Music and Dance
   • a tube used as, or to form an essential part of, a musical wind instrument.
   • a musical wind instrument consisting of a single tube of straw, reed, wood, or other material, as a flute, clarinet, or oboe.
   • one of the wooden or metal tubes from which the tones of an organ are produced.
   • a small end-blown flute played with one hand while the other beats a small drum.
5. [Naut.]
   • Naval Terms See boatswain's pipe. 
   • Naval Terms the sound of a boatswain's pipe.
6. Zoology the call or utterance of a bird, frog, etc.
7. Informal Terms pipes, the human vocal cords or the voice, esp. as used in singing.
8. Usually, pipes. 
   • Music and Dance bagpipe.
   • Music and Dance a set of flutes, as a panpipe.
   • Informal Terms a tubular organ or passage of a human or animal body, esp. a respiratory passage:
     to complain of congested pipes.
9. Geology any of various tubular or cylindrical objects, parts, or formations, as an eruptive passage of a volcano or geyser.
10. Mining
    • a cylindrical vein or body of ore.
    • (in South Africa) a vertical, cylindrical matrix, of intrusive igneous origin, in which diamonds are found.
11. Metallurgy a depression occurring at the center of the head of an ingot as a result of the tendency of solidification to begin at the bottom and sides of the ingot mold.
12. Botany the stem of a plant.

v.i. 

13. Music and Dance to play on a pipe.
14. Nautical, Naval Terms to signal, as with a boatswain's pipe.
15. to speak in a high-pitched or piercing tone.
16. to make or utter a shrill sound like that of a pipe:
    songbirds piping at dawn.

v.t. 

17. Civil Engineering to convey by or as by pipes:
    to pipe water from the lake.
18. Civil Engineering to supply with pipes.
19. Music and Dance to play (music) on a pipe or pipes.
20. Naval Terms to summon, order, etc., by sounding the boatswain's pipe or whistle:
    all hands were piped on deck.
21. to bring, lead, etc., by or as by playing on a pipe:
    to pipe dancers.
22. to utter in a shrill tone:
    to pipe a command.
23. Clothing to trim or finish with piping, as an article of clothing.
24. Food [Cookery.] to force (dough, frosting, etc.) through a pastry tube onto a baking sheet, cake or pie, etc.
25. Informal Terms, Electricity to convey by an electrical wire or cable:
    to pipe a signal from the antenna.
26. Slang Terms to look at;
    notice:
    Pipe the cat in the hat.
27. pipe down, [Slang.] to stop talking;
    be quiet:
    He shouted at us to pipe down.
28. pipe up:
    • Music and Dance to begin to play (a musical instrument) or to sing.
    • to make oneself heard;
      speak up, esp. as to assert oneself.
    • to increase in velocity, as the wind.

• Latin pīpāre (compare peep²)
• Old French piper to make a shrill sound
• Latin pīpāre; in part
• Vulgar Latin *pīpa, derivative of Latin pīpāre to chirp, play a pipe; (verb, verbal) Middle English pipen; in part continuing Old English pīpian to play a pipe
• (noun, nominal) Middle English, Old English pīpe musical pipe, tube (cognate with Dutch pijp, Low German pīpe, German Pfeife, Old Norse pīpa) bef. 1000

pipe′less, adj. 
pipe′like′, adj. 
Synonyms

• 16. cheep, chitter, whistle, chirp, peep, trill, twitter, tweet.

pipe²  (pīp), n. 

1. a large cask, of varying capacity, esp. for wine or oil.
2. Weights and Measures such a cask as a measure of liquid capacity, equal to 4 barrels, 2 hogsheads, or half a tun, and containing 126 wine gallons.
3. such a cask with its contents.

• Middle French, ultimately same as pipe¹
• Middle English 1350–1400

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

pipe / paɪp/ noun

1. a long tube of metal, plastic, etc, used to convey water, oil, gas, etc
2. a long tube or case
3. an object made in any of various shapes and sizes, consisting of a small bowl with an attached tubular stem, in which tobacco or other substances are smoked
4. (as modifier): a pipe bowl
5. Also called: pipeful the amount of tobacco that fills the bowl of a pipe
6. any of various hollow organs, such as the respiratory passage of certain animals
7. any musical instrument whose sound production results from the vibration of an air column in a simple tube
8. any of the tubular devices on an organ, in which air is made to vibrate either directly, as in a flue pipe, or by means of a reed
9. an obsolete three-holed wind instrument, held in the left hand while played and accompanied by the tabor
   See tabor
10. the pipes ⇒
    See bagpipes
11. a shrill voice or sound, as of a bird
12. a boatswain's pipe
13. the sound it makes
14. (plural) the respiratory tract or vocal cords
15. an operation which sends the output of one process to the input of another
16. a conical hole in the head of an ingot, made by escaping gas as the metal cools
17. a cylindrical vein of rich ore, such as one of the vertical diamond-bearing veins at Kimberley, South Africa
18. Also called: volcanic pipe a vertical cylindrical passage in a volcano through which molten lava is forced during eruption
19. something easy to do, esp a simple course in college
20. put that in your pipe and smoke it ⇒ accept that fact if you can

verb

1. to play (music) on a pipe
2. (transitive) to summon or lead by a pipe: to pipe the dancers
3. to utter (something) shrilly
4. to signal orders to (the crew) by a boatswain's pipe
5. (transitive) to signal the arrival or departure of: to pipe the admiral aboard
6. (transitive) to convey (water, gas, etc) by a pipe or pipes
7. (transitive) to provide with pipes
8. (transitive) to trim (an article, esp of clothing) with piping
9. (transitive) to force (cream, icing, etc) through a shaped nozzle to decorate food
10. (transitive) to send (the output of one process) to the input of another process

Etymology: Old English pīpe (n), pīpian (vb), ultimately from Latin pīpāre to chirp

pipe / paɪp/ noun

1. a large cask for wine, oil, etc
2. a measure of capacity for wine equal to four barrels. 1 pipe is equal to 126 US gallons or 105 Brit gallons
3. a cask holding this quantity with its contents

Etymology: 14th Century: via Old French (in the sense: tube, tubular vessel), ultimately from Latin pīpāre to chirp; compare pipe¹