pipe

English Online Dictionary. What means pipe‎? What does pipe mean?

English

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”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /paɪp/
• Rhymes: -aɪp

Noun

pipe (plural pipes)

1. Meanings relating to a wind instrument.
   2. (music) A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often lined with holes to allow for adjustment in pitch, sounded by blowing into the tube. [from 10th c.]
   3. (music) A tube used to produce sound in an organ; an organ pipe. [from 14th c.]
   4. The key or sound of the voice. [from 16th c.]
   5. A high-pitched sound, especially of a bird. [from 18th c.]
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. [from 10th c.]
      1. (especially in informal contexts) A water pipe.
   2. A tubular passageway in the human body such as a blood vessel or the windpipe. [from 14th c.]
   3. (slang) A man's penis.
3. Meanings relating to a container.
   2. A large container for storing liquids or foodstuffs; now especially a vat or cask of cider or wine. (See a diagram comparing cask sizes.) [from 14th c.]

      Meronym: pipestave

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

        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.
   4. The contents of such a vessel, as a liquid measure, sometimes set at 126 wine gallons; half a tun. [from 14th c.]

      Synonym: butt

      Coordinate terms: (in order of increasing volume) rundlet; barrel; tierce; hogshead; puncheon, tertian; tun
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. [from 15th c.]
   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. [from 19th c.]
   4. (lacrosse) One of the goalposts of the goal.
   5. (mining) An elongated or irregular body or vein of ore. [from 17th c.]
   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. [from 19th c.]
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. [from 20th c.]
   2. (computing, slang) A data backbone, or broadband Internet access. [from 20th c.]

   3. (computing, typography) The character |. [from 20th c.]
7. 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. [from 16th c.]
   2. (Canada, US, colloquial, historical) The distance travelled between two rest periods during which one could smoke a pipe. [from 18th c.]
8. (slang) A telephone.

   Synonym: blower

Synonyms

• (tube): See Thesaurus:tube
• (typography): bar, vertical bar, vertical line, virgule (marking metrical feet)
• (lava channel within a volcano): pan (S. Africa, obsolete)

Hyponyms

• (smoking implement): briar

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Bengali: পাইপ (paip)
• → Gulf Arabic: پيپ (pēp, bēb, “smoking pipe”), پايپ (pāyp, bāyb, “medium of transportation (sense 2.1)”)
• → Hindi: पाइप (pāip)
• → Japanese: パイプ (paipu)
• → Korean: 파이프 (paipeu)
• → Malay: paip
• → Maori: paipa
• → Russian: пайп (pajp)
• → Urak Lawoi': ปาเฮะ (pahëq)

Translations

Verb

pipe (third-person singular simple present pipes, present participle piping, simple past and past participle piped)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To play (music) on a pipe instrument, such as a bagpipe or a flute.
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.
4. (intransitive) Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.

   Coordinate terms: quack, toot

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, figuratively) To lead or conduct as if by pipes, especially by wired transmission.
10. (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.
11. (transitive, cooking) To create or decorate with piping (icing).
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.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:see
15. (US, journalism, slang) To invent or embellish (a story).
16. (transitive) To hit with a pipe.

Derived terms

References

Further reading

• pipe on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Eastern Arrernte

Etymology

From English paper.

Noun

pipe

1. paper

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pip/

Etymology 1

From the Old French verb piper (“to squeak, chirp”), from Latin pipare (“to squeak”).

Noun

pipe f (plural pipes)

1. tobacco pipe
2. (vulgar) blowjob

   Elle m’a taillé une pipe. ― She blew me.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From English pipe.

Noun

pipe m (plural pipes)

1. the pipe symbol ( | )

Further reading

• “pipe”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Noun

pipe f

1. plural of pipa

Anagrams

• pepi

Middle English

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old English pīpe, from Proto-West Germanic *pīpā; reinforced by Vulgar Latin *pīpa; some senses are from Old French pipe.

Alternative forms

• pype

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpiːp(ə)/

Noun

pipe (plural pipes or pipe)

1. A pipe; a piece of tubing used as a channel (often for fluids):
   1. A piece of tubing which string or rope is inserted into.
   2. (medicine) A syringe; a hollow tube for medical removal or insertion.
   3. Any other medical device or equipment based around a chamber or pipe.
   4. A pipe (musical instrument) or a similar wind instrument.
   5. (rare) A pipe as part of a musical instrument (e.g. bagpipes)
2. A barrel or tub; a container or vessel for the storage of bulk goods, especially wine.
3. A unit measuring the mass or amount (equivalent to such a container).
4. A record of a payment or audit acting as part of the Pipe Rolls.
5. An anatomical or bodily channel or passage, especially one used for respiration.
6. (rare) A tube-shaped support or holder; something resembling a pipe but not used as one.

Related terms

• bagpipe
• hornepipe
• pipen
• piper

Descendants

• English: pipe (see there for further descendants)
• Scots: pipe
• Yola: peeps (plural)

References

• “pīpe, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-12-07.
• “pīpe, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-12-07.

Etymology 2

From Old English pīpian.

Verb

pipe

1. Alternative form of pipen

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

pipe f (plural pipes)

1. (Jersey) 120 gallons

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From Old Norse pípa, from Old Saxon *pīpa, from Proto-West Germanic *pīpǭ.

Noun

pipe f or m (definite singular pipa or pipen, indefinite plural piper, definite plural pipene)

1. a chimney
2. (smoking) a pipe
3. an organ pipe

Derived terms

• sekkepipe

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *pīpaną.

Verb

pipe (present tense piper, past tense per or peip, past participle pepet, present participle pipende, imperative pip)

1. (intransitive) to chirp, squeek, to make a sound with a high pitch

References

• “pipe” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From Old Norse pípa, from Old Saxon *pīpa, from Proto-West Germanic *pīpǭ.

Noun

pipe f (definite singular pipa, indefinite plural piper, definite plural pipene)

1. a pipe (e.g. organ pipe or tobacco pipe)
2. a chimney

Derived terms

• glasblåsarpipe
• hasjpipe
• kritpipe
• orgelpipe
• pipetobakk
• sekkepipe
• tobakkspipe

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *pīpaną.

Alternative forms

• pipa (a infinitive)

Verb

pipe (present tense pip, past tense peip, supine pipe, past participle pipen, present participle pipande, imperative pip)

1. (intransitive) to chirp, squeek, to make a sound with a high pitch

References

• “pipe” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *pīpǭ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpiː.pe/

Noun

pīpe f

1. a pipe (musical instrument)
2. pipe (for channeling liquid)

Declension

Weak:

Derived terms

• pīpere
• pīpian

Descendants

• English: pipe

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English pipe.

Pronunciation

Noun

pipe m (uncountable)

1. (computing) pipe (the redirection of the output of a process directly into the input of another)

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpipe/ [ˈpi.pe]
• Rhymes: -ipe
• Syllabification: pi‧pe

Etymology 1

Noun

pipe m (plural pipes)

1. (Nicaragua) brother; bro

Etymology 2

Verb

pipe

1. inflection of pipar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “pipe”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10