pipe

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A tube through which liquid or gas can flow.

   A water pipe burst and flooded the kitchen.

2. 2
   noun

   A small tube with a bowl at one end, used for smoking tobacco.

   The old man sat by the fire and smoked his pipe.

3. 3
   verb

   To carry liquid or gas through pipes.

   Fresh water is piped into the village from the hills.

4. 4
   noun

   A simple musical instrument like a tube that you blow into.

   The shepherd played a tune on his pipe.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Pipe was present in Old English and ultimately goes back to Latin pipare, “to chirp” or “squeak.” It first denoted a simple tube-shaped wind instrument, then a tube for carrying fluids, and from the mid-16th century a device for smoking tobacco.

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;…

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary