pipe

Etymology

From Middle English pīpe, pype (“hollow cylinder or tube used as a conduit or container; duct or vessel of the body; musical instrument; financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, pipe roll”), from Old English pīpe (“pipe (musical instrument); the channel of a small stream”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīpā. Reinforced by Vulgar Latin *pīpa, from Latin pipire, pipiare, pipare, from pīpiō (“to chirp, peep”), of imitative origin. Doublet of fife. The “storage container” and “liquid measure” senses are derived from Middle English pīpe (“large storage receptacle, particularly for wine; cask, vat; measure of volume”), from pīpe (above) and Old French pipe (“liquid measure”). In specific contexts, calques similar units of measure such as Portuguese pipa. The verb is from Middle English pīpen, pypyn (“to play a pipe; to make a shrill sound; to speak with a high-pitched tone”), from Old English pīpian (“to pipe”).

noun

1. 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.
      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. (music) 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, 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.
   4. A high-pitched sound, especially of a bird.
2. 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.
      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.
         A burst pipe flooded my bathroom.
         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.
      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,[…], →OCLC, pages 125–126
   3. (slang) A man's penis.
      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
3. 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.)
      Meronym: pipestave
      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, →OCLC
   2. The contents of such a vessel, as a liquid measure, sometimes set at 126 wine gallons; half a tun.
      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, →OCLC, page 205
4. 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.
   2. A type of pasta similar to macaroni.
   3. (geology) A vertical conduit through the Earth's crust below a volcano through which magma has passed, often filled with volcanic breccia.
      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, →ISSN, →OCLC, 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.
   5. (mining) An elongated or irregular body or vein of ore.
   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.
      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. 26 September 1818, “Sydney. [Criminal Court.]”, in Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, volume XVI, number 775, Sydney, N.S.W.: By authority [government printer], →OCLC, page 3, columns 2–3
5. 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.
   2. (computing, slang) A data backbone, or broadband Internet access.
      A fat pipe is a high-bandwidth connection.
   3. (computing, typography) The character [[Unsupported titles/`vert`#Translingual||]].
      While parseing an xml document( sax parser ), trying to replace ' | ' with ' & ' , it finds the pipe, but won't replace with amper. 13 July 2001, JimmyMac, “java and xml”, in comp.lang.java.help (Usenet)
6. 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.
   2. (Canada, US, colloquial, historical) The distance travelled between two rest periods during which one could smoke a pipe.
7. (slang) A telephone.
   “Let's try to get on the pipe to Admiral Collier again.” 1980, Charles D. Taylor, Show of Force

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To play (music) on a pipe instrument, such as a bagpipe or a flute.
   [T]he pide Piper with a ſhrill pipe went piping through the ſtreets, and forthwith the rats came all running out of the houſes in great numbers after him; all which hee led into the riuer of Weaſer and therein drowned them. 1605, R[ichard] V[erstegan], “Of the Antient Manner of Living of Ovr Saxon Ancestors.[…]”, in A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence: In Antiquities. Concerning the Most Noble and Renovvmed English Nation.[…], printed at Antwerp: By Robert Bruney; […] [a]nd to be sold[…], by Iohn Norton and Iohn Bill, →OCLC; republished London: Printed by Iohn Bill,[…], 1628, →OCLC, page 85
2. (intransitive) To shout loudly and at high pitch.
3. (intransitive) To emit or have a shrill sound like that of a pipe; to whistle.
   [W]ith the mariners A fellow-mariner,—and so had fared Through twenty seasons; but he had been rear'd Among the mountains, and he in his heart Was half a Shepherd on the stormy seas. Oft in the piping shrouds had Leonard heard The tones of waterfalls, and inland sounds Of caves and trees: […] 1827, William Wordsworth, “The Brothers”, in The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. In Five Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green,[…], →OCLC, page 125
4. (intransitive) Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.
5. (intransitive, metallurgy) Of a metal ingot: to become hollow in the process of solidifying.
6. (transitive) To convey or transport (something) by means of pipes.
7. (transitive) To install or configure with pipes.
8. (transitive) To dab moisture away from.
9. (transitive, figurative) To lead or conduct as if by pipes, especially by wired transmission.
   Soft baroque music pipes through the ornate, dripping-with-gold church sanctuary. 2009, Susan Van Allen, “Churches Dedicated to Female Saints—Rome”, in 100 Places in Italy Every Woman should Go, Palo Alto, Calif.: Travelers’ Tales, Solas House, section I (The Divine: Goddesses, Saints, and the Blessed Virgin Mary), page 20
10. (transitive, computing, chiefly Unix) To directly feed (the output of one program) as input to another program, indicated by the pipe character ([[Unsupported titles/`vert`#Translingual||]]) at the command line.
11. (transitive, cooking) To create or decorate with piping (icing).
    to pipe flowers on to a cupcake
    This means a quantity of runouts can be made in advance, allowing more time to flat ice and pipe the cake. 1998, Nicholas Lodge, Janice Murfitt, The International School of Sugarcraft: Book One: Beginners, London: Merehurst Press, page 108
12. (transitive, nautical) To order or signal by a note pattern on a boatswain's pipe.
13. (transitive, slang, of a man) To have sex with a woman.
14. (transitive, slang, dated) To see.
    So I went and laid down on the grass. While laying there I piped a reeler whom I knew. He had a nark (a policeman's spy) with him. So I went and looked about for my two pals, and told them to look out for F. and his nark. 1879 October, J[ohn] W[illiam] Horsley, “Autobiography of a Thief in Thieves’ Language”, in Macmillan’s Magazine, volume XL, number 240, London: Macmillan and Co.[…], →OCLC, page 505, column 1
    "Hey, Greek," Roger was saying, his droning voice coming unpleasantly into the other's musings, "did you pipe that? Did you ever see anything like her?" 1914, Jackson Gregory, Under Handicap
15. (US, journalism, slang) To invent or embellish (a story).
    […] who ostensibly was handed an all-day sucker by a warm-hearted bandit in the act of robbing a candy store of $40, there was no moral outcry. "Find the girl," was the immediate response of competing editors to their reporters at police headquarters. The men of the press, who knew a piped story when they saw one, quickly found another little girl, presented her with a lollipop, and photographed her skipping rope in front of the candy store. 1981, Elie Abel, What's News: The Media in American Society, page 259
    If there was a lull in criminal activity, reporters were not above "piping" a story. 2004, Arthur Gelb, City Room, page 154
    Reporters today supposedly do not use "piped" stories because they are unethical. 2008, Homer L. Hall, Logan H. Aimone, High School Journalism, page 91