Definition of "pipe"

Meanings relating to a wind instrument.

1. (music) A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often lined with holes to allow for adjustment in pitch, sounded by blowing into the tube.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are callingFrom 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 […], page 1

2. (music) A tube used to produce sound in an organ; an organ pipe.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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, page 245; republished Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2014, part 3 (Musical Instruments), section 18.7 (The Theater Organ), page 245

3. The key or sound of the voice.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • For they ſhall yet belye thy happy yeeres,That ſay thou art a man: Dianas lipIs not more ſmooth, and rubious: thy ſmall pipeIs 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 Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iv], page 257, column 2

4. A high-pitched sound, especially of a bird.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawnsThe earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birdsTo dying ears, when unto dying eyesThe 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, […], pages 66–67

Meanings relating to a hollow conduit.

1. A rigid tube that transports water, steam, or other fluid, as used in plumbing and numerous other applications.  quotations

   Quotations

   • 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 leakage of fuel if the aircraft lost the probe nozzle inadvertently.

     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, part 2 (Technology), page 286, column 1

   1. (especially in informal contexts) A water pipe.  quotations  examples

      Quotations

      • Corrosion control can be accomplished in distribution systems by adding compounds that form a protective film on the pipe surface, thereby providing a barrier between the water and the pipe.

        2000, Richard L. Valentine et al., “Chlorine and Monochloramine Decay in Batch and Loop Experiments”, in The Role of the Pipe–Water Interface in DBP Formation and Disinfectant Loss, Iowa City, Ia.: University of Iowa, page 115

2. A tubular passageway in the human body such as a blood vessel or the windpipe.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Amongst the vessels of the human body, the pipe which conveys the saliva from the place where it is made, to the place where it is wanted, deserves to be reckoned amongst the most intelligible pieces of mechanism with which we are acquainted.

     1802, William Paley, “Of the Vessels of Animal Bodies”, in Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Philadelphia, Pa.: John Morgan, […], pages 125–126

3. (slang) A man's penis.  quotations

   Quotations

   • He grabs my legs and throws them over his shoulders, putting his big pipe inside me […]

     2006, Monique A. Williams, Neurotica: An Honest Examination into Urban Sexual Relations, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu Enterprises, page 7

   • He punctuated his demand with a deep thrust up CJ's hole. His giant pipe drove almost all the way in, pulsing against his fingers beside it.

     2010, Eric Summers, editor, Teammates, Sarasota, Fla.: StarBooks, page 90

   • He laughed as he knelt down between Duncan's splayed thighs and tore open a packaged condom, then rolled it down over his big fuck-pipe.

     2011, Mickey Erlach, Gym Buddies & Buff Boys, Sarasota, Fla.: StarBooks, page 64

Meanings relating to a container.

1. A large container for storing liquids or foodstuffs; now especially a vat or cask of cider or wine. (See a diagram comparing cask sizes.)  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Mr Barretto informed us he had shipped two hundred and forty pipes of Madeira [which] not only impeded the ship's progress by making her too deep in the water, but greatly increased her motion.

     1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 329

   • My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day! But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts.

     1846, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado”, in The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, volume I, New York: W. J. Widdleton, published 1849, page 347

2. The contents of such a vessel, as a liquid measure, sometimes set at 126 wine gallons; half a tun.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31½ gallons, a rundlet 18½ gallons.

     1882, James E[dwin] Thorold Rogers, “Weights and Measures”, in A History of Agriculture and Prices in England from the Year after the Oxford Parliament (1259) to the Commencement of the Continental War (1793) […], volumes IV (1401–1582), Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, page 205

Meanings relating to something resembling a tube.

1. Decorative edging stitched to the hems or seams of an object made of fabric (clothing, hats, curtains, pillows, etc.), often in a contrasting color; piping.  examples

2. A type of pasta similar to macaroni.  examples

3. (geology) A vertical conduit through the Earth's crust below a volcano through which magma has passed, often filled with volcanic breccia.  quotations

   Quotations

   • While the pipe of a conventional volcano may extend down 50 miles or so, the volcanic pipes that pick up diamonds along the way had to go much deeper, perhaps as deep as 300 miles.

     1995 March, Jon Bowermaster, “Diamond Rush in the Arctic”, in Fred Abatemarco, editor, Popular Science, volume 246, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Times Mirror Magazines, page 83, columns 2–3

   • Some researchers think that the warming was caused as kimberlite pipes (volcanic vents originating deep in the Earth’s mantle) reached the surface near Lac de Gras in northern Canada and released huge amounts of carbon.

     2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 54

4. (lacrosse) One of the goalposts of the goal.  examples

5. (mining) An elongated or irregular body or vein of ore.  examples

6. (Australia, colloquial, historical) An anonymous satire or essay, insulting and frequently libellous, written on a piece of paper which was rolled up and left somewhere public where it could be found and thus spread, to embarrass the author's enemies.  quotations

   Quotations

   • On Thursday Mr. William Bland, formerly a Surgeon in the Royal Navy, […] was brought to trial on a charge of libelling the Governor [Lachlan Macquarie], by the composition and publishing of various letters and verses contained in a manuscript book dropped on the Parramatta Road—and thence brought to light. […] [H]owever lenient the sentence passed upon this young man, yet, it is much to be hoped, that from his example pipe-making will in future be reposed solely in the hands of Mr. Wm. Cluer [an earthenware pipe maker] of the Brickfield Hill.

     1818 September 26, “Sydney. [Criminal Court.]”, in Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, volume XVI, number 775, Sydney, N.S.W.: By authority [government printer], page 3, columns 2–3

Meanings relating to computing.

1. (computing) A mechanism that enables one program to communicate with another by sending its output to the other as input.  examples

2. (computing, slang) A data backbone, or broadband Internet access.

3. (computing, typography) The character |.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • While parseing an xml document( sax parser ), trying to replace ' | ' with ' & ' , it finds the pipe, but won't replace with amper.

     2001 July 13, JimmyMac, “java and xml”, in comp.lang.java.help‎ (Usenet)

Meanings relating to a smoking implement.

1. (smoking) A hollow stem with a bowl at one end used for smoking, especially a tobacco pipe but also including various other forms such as a water pipe.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Sitting in among the wares he dealt in, by a charcoal-stove, made of old bricks, was a gray-haired rascal, nearly seventy years of age; who had screened himself from the cold air without, by a frousy curtaining of miscellaneous tatters, hung upon a line; and smoked his pipe in all the luxury of calm retirement.

     1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], page 129

   • In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle—a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

     1892, Walter Besant, “The Select Circle”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], page 46

2. (Canada, US, colloquial, historical) The distance travelled between two rest periods during which one could smoke a pipe.

(slang) A telephone.  quotations

(transitive, intransitive) To play (music) on a pipe instrument, such as a bagpipe or a flute.  quotations  examples

(intransitive) To shout loudly and at high pitch.  quotations  examples

(intransitive) To emit or have a shrill sound like that of a pipe; to whistle.  quotations  examples

(intransitive) Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.  examples

(intransitive, metallurgy) Of a metal ingot: to become hollow in the process of solidifying.  examples

(transitive) To convey or transport (something) by means of pipes.  examples

(transitive) To install or configure with pipes.  examples

(transitive) To dab moisture away from.  quotations  examples

(transitive, figuratively) To lead or conduct as if by pipes, especially by wired transmission.  quotations  examples

(transitive, computing, chiefly Unix) To directly feed (the output of one program) as input to another program, indicated by the pipe character (|) at the command line.  examples

(transitive, cooking) To create or decorate with piping (icing).  quotations  examples

(transitive, nautical) To order or signal by a note pattern on a boatswain's pipe.  quotations  examples

(transitive, slang, of a man) To have sex with a woman.  quotations

(transitive, slang, dated) To see.  quotations

(US, journalism, slang) To invent or embellish (a story).  quotations