pipe Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a tube with a small bowl at one end; used for smoking tobacco
    tobacco pipe.
  2. noun a long tube made of metal or plastic that is used to carry water or oil or gas etc.
    piping; pipage.
  3. noun a hollow cylindrical shape
    tube.
  4. noun a tubular wind instrument
  5. noun the flues and stops on a pipe organ
    organ pipe; pipework.
  6. verb utter a shrill cry
    shrill; pipe up; shriek.
  7. verb transport by pipeline
    • pipe oil, water, and gas into the desert
  8. verb play on a pipe
    • pipe a tune
  9. verb trim with piping
    • pipe the skirt

WordNet

Pipe noun
Etymology
AS. pipe, probably fr. L. pipare, pipire, to chirp; of imitative origin. Cf. Peep, Pibroch, Fife.
Definitions
  1. A wind instrument of music, consisting of a tube or tubes of straw, reed, wood, or metal; any tube which produces musical sounds; as, a shepherd's pipe; the pipe of an organ. "Tunable as sylvan pipe." Milton.
    Now had he rather hear the tabor and the pipe. Shak.
  2. Any long tube or hollow body of wood, metal, earthenware, or the like: especially, one used as a conductor of water, steam, gas, etc.
  3. A small bowl with a hollow steam, -- used in smoking tobacco, and, sometimes, other substances.
  4. A passageway for the air in speaking and breathing; the windpipe, or one of its divisions.
  5. The key or sound of the voice. R. Shak.
  6. The peeping whistle, call, or note of a bird.
    The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds. Tennyson.
  7. pl. The bagpipe; as, the pipes of Lucknow.
  8. (Mining) An elongated body or vein of ore.
  9. A roll formerly used in the English exchequer, otherwise called the Great Roll, on which were taken down the accounts of debts to the king; -- so called because put together like a pipe. Mozley & W.
  10. (Naut.) A boatswain's whistle, used to call the crew to their duties; also, the sound of it.
  11. Cf. F. pipe, fr. pipe a wind instrument, a tube, fr. L. pipare to chirp. See Etymol. above. A cask usually containing two hogsheads, or 126 wine gallons; also, the quantity which it contains.
Pipe intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To play on a pipe, fife, flute, or other tubular wind instrument of music.
    We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced. Matt. xi. 17.
  2. (Naut.) To call, convey orders, etc., by means of signals on a pipe or whistle carried by a boatswain.
  3. To emit or have a shrill sound like that of a pipe; to whistle. "Oft in the piping shrouds." Wordsworth.
  4. (Metal.) To become hollow in the process of solodifying; -- said of an ingot, as of steel.
Pipe transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Piped ; present participle & verbal noun Piping
Definitions
  1. To perform, as a tune, by playing on a pipe, flute, fife, etc.; to utter in the shrill tone of a pipe.
    A robin . . . was piping a few querulous notes. W. Irving.
  2. (Naut.) To call or direct, as a crew, by the boatswain's whistle.
    As fine a ship's company as was ever piped aloft. Marryat.
  3. To furnish or equip with pipes; as, to pipe an engine, or a building.

Webster 1913