Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A musical instrument having a flexible bag inflated either by a tube with valves or by bellows, a double-reed melody pipe, and from one to four drone pipes. Often used in the plural.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A musical wind-instrument consisting of a leathern bag, which receives the air from the mouth, or from bellows, and of pipes, into which the air is pressed from the bag by the performer's elbow. It originated in the East, was known to the Greeks and Romans, was popular in Europe throughout the middle ages, and is still used in many eastern countries, as well as among the country people of Poland, Italy, the south of France, and in Scotland and Ireland. Though now often regarded as the national instrument of Scotland, especially Celtic Scotland, its origin and use seem to belong to the Celtic race in general. In its best-known form it has four pipes. One of these, called the chanter, has a double reed and eight finger-holes, so that melodies may be played upon it. Its compass may be approximately indicated thus:
- To cause to resemble a bagpipe.
Wiktionary
- n. Singular of bagpipes (normally used in plural)
- v. To play the bagpipes.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A musical wind instrument, now used chiefly in the Highlands of Scotland.
- v. To make to look like a bagpipe.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a tubular wind instrument; the player blows air into a bag and squeezes it out through the drone
Examples
“Of course I admit that whether the bagpipe is a musical instrument or not is a matter of argument, for just what constitutes music my Irish friend, George Bernard Shaw, says is a point of view.”
“The symphonia is thought by some to be the bagpipe, which is called sampogna by the modern Italians: by others it is regarded as a sort of organ.”
“The skirl of a bagpipe was the only sound as the service began.”
“We had a full time saxophone who played the "bagpipe" sounding parts which to my knowledge were performed on a guitar with an eBow.”
“The man took in the situation at a glance, and came to Billy's rescue, making the snake uncoil itself by playing on a kind of bagpipe, a queer, weird, monotonous piece of music.”
“The Slovaks of the north play a kind of bagpipe, which reminds one of the Scotch ones; but the songs of the Slovak have got very much mixed with the Hungarian.”
Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 6 Germany, Austria-Hungary and Switzerland, part 2
“+ The dulcimer, (Daniel 3: 5) a kind of bagpipe with two shrill reeds.”
“When the young Winston Churchill said that given plain food and a philosophical attitude man could survive anything he forgot one thing - a good going bagpipe.”
“We can retire into our bagpipe bubble immune from the fiduciary maelstrom raging above.”
“No; so let's keep our sanity intact and our bagpipe manufacturers free from recession.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bagpipe’.
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Piper
Words containing *pipe*.
bagpipe, bagpipes, bagpiper, bagpipers, blowpipe, blowpipes, downpipe, downpipes, drainpipe, drainpipes, epipelagic, epipelagic zone and 91 more...

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