<B>pipestem, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the rigid tube (stem) of a tobacco pipe, through which the smoke is drawn from the bowl by sucking. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) something thin, such as a leg or arm. <DD><B> 3. </B>Usually, <B>pipestems.</B> <B>=pipestem trousers.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="pipestemtrousers">
<B>pipestem trousers</B> or <B>pants,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> narrow trousers that taper at the bottom. </DL>
<A NAME="pipestone">
<B>pipestone, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a hard red clay or soft stone used by the North American Indians for peace pipes. </DL>
<A NAME="pipetomahawk">
<B>pipe tomahawk,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a tomahawk used by North American Indians especially as a tobacco pipe, containing a tobacco bowl on the blunt side of the hatchet and a hollow handle as the stem. </DL>
<A NAME="pipette">
<B>pipette</B> or <B>pipet, </B>noun, verb, <B>-petted,</B> <B>-petting.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> a slender pipe or tube used for transferring or measuring small quantities of liquids or gases. The most common type is a small glass tube that widens into a bulb at the middle, into which liquid may be sucked, and in which it may be retained by closing the top end with a stopper or finger. <BR> <I>Ex. The buret and the pipet are both calibrated to deliver a certain volume rather than to contain a certain volume (W. N. Jones).</I> <DD><I>v.t. </I> to pour, transfer, or draw off or out by means of a pipette. <BR> <I>Ex. With a medicine dropper he catches the animal in a drop of water, pipettes the drop on a glass slide and places the slide under his microscope (Scientific American).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pipework">
<B>pipework, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> pipes; piping. <BR> <I>Ex. Fuels affected by heat may give rise to deposits which foul the pipework (New Scientist).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pipewort">
<B>pipewort, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of a family of chiefly tropical aquatic or marsh herbs, stemless or nearly so, with fibrous roots, linear leaves, and naked scapes bearing dense heads of minute flowers. </DL>
<A NAME="pipewrench">
<B>pipe wrench,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a wrench used for turning or gripping pipes, such as the Stillson wrench. </DL>
<A NAME="pipi">
<B>pipi, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of various kinds of bivalve shellfish, used in Australia as food and bait, especially one commonly found on the coast of New South Wales. </DL>
<A NAME="piping">
<B>piping, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a shrill sound. <BR> <I>Ex. the piping of frogs in the spring.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>pipes. <BR> <I>Ex. a house equipped with copper piping.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>material for pipes; pipe. <BR> <I>Ex. three feet of piping.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>the music of pipes. <DD><B> 5. </B>a narrow band of material, sometimes containing a cord, used for trimming along edges and seams. <BR> <I>Ex. A two-piece dress of black-and-taupe striped wool jersey has piping of black leather on the collar (New Yorker).</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>ornamental lines of icing, frosting, or meringue. <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>sounding shrilly; shrill. <BR> <I>Ex. a high, piping voice.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Archaic.) <DD><B> a. </B>characterized by or appropriate to the music of the pastoral pipe. <BR> <I>Ex. In this weak piping time of Peace (Shakespeare).</I> <DD><B> b. </B>that plays a musical pipe. <BR> <I>Ex. Lowing herds, and piping swains (Jonathan Swift).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>piping hot,</B> </I>so as to hiss; very hot; boiling. <BR> <I>Ex. The coffee is piping hot.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pipingcrow">
<B>piping crow,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any one of various birds related to the shrikes and found in and around Australia and New Guinea, such as a species with black and white plumage, that is often domesticated and can be taught to speak words. </DL>
<A NAME="pipingplover">
<B>piping plover,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a small white and sand-colored plover of eastern North America. </DL>
<A NAME="pipistrel">
<B>pipistrel</B> or <B>pipistrelle, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of a group of small brown or grayish bats, especially one found in the eastern United States and Mexico. </DL>
<A NAME="pipit">
<B>pipit, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a small, brownish bird, somewhat like a lark, that sings while flying; titlark. There are various kinds. </DL>
<A NAME="pipkin">
<B>pipkin, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(British.) a small earthenware or metal pot, used chiefly in cookery. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Dialect.) a piggin. </DL>
<A NAME="pipless">
<B>pipless, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> without pips or seeds, as an orange. </DL>
<A NAME="pipper">
<B>pipper, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a small hole in the reticle of an optical sight or computing sight. </DL>
<A NAME="pippin">
<B>pippin, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>any one of several kinds of apple. Pippins ripen in the fall, are roundish in form and yellowish-green in color, and have firm flesh of excellent flavor. <BR> <I>Ex. I will make an end of my dinner, there's pippins and cheese to come (Shakespeare).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Obsolete or Dialect.) the seed (pip) of a fruit. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Slang.) someone or something especially attractive. </DL>
<A NAME="pipradol">
<B>pipradol, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a drug used to stimulate the central nervous system in cases of emotional depression or fatigue; Meratran. </DL>
<A NAME="pipsissewa">
<B>pipsissewa, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of a genus of low, creeping evergreen plants related to the shinleaf, especially a kind whose leaves are used in medicine as a tonic, astringent, and diuretic; wintergreen. </DL>
<A NAME="pipsqueak">
<B>pipsqueak, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Slang.) <DD><B> 1. </B>an insignificant person; petty object. <BR> <I>Ex. Her notion is that he could be a big wheel on Madison Avenue instead of a publicity pipsqueak in a charitable foundation if he would just show a little get-up-and-go (New Yorker).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a small type of high-velocity shell distinguished by the sound of its flight. It was used during World War I. </DL>
<B>piquancy, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the quality of exciting the mind pleasantly. <BR> <I>Ex. To his piquancy and richness of characterization he was able to add the deepest spiritual dimensions (Wall Street Journal).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the quality of exciting the appetite or of being odd or pleasantly sharp to the taste. </DL>
<A NAME="piquant">
<B>piquant, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>stimulating to the mind or interest. <BR> <I>Ex. a piquant bit of news.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>interestingly attractive. <BR> <I>Ex. a piquant smile.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>pleasantly sharp; stimulating to the taste; appetizing. <BR> <I>Ex. a piquant sauce, piquant pickles.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>(Archaic.) unpleasantly sharp or biting; stinging. adv. <B>piquantly.</B> noun <B>piquantness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="piquante">
<B>piquante, </B>adjective. <B>=piquant.</B></DL>
<A NAME="pique">
<B>pique, </B>noun, verb, <B>piqued,</B> <B>piquing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a feeling of anger at being slighted; wounded pride. <BR> <I>Ex. In a pique, she left the party. It should comfort no one that a group of men are powerful enough to legislate by pique (Wall Street Journal).</I> (SYN) umbrage. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Archaic.) a fit of ill feeling between persons; personal quarrel. <BR> <I>Ex. Her sudden freak ... must have been caused by some little pique or misunderstanding between them (George Eliot).</I> <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to cause a feeling of anger in; wound the pride of. <BR> <I>Ex. It piqued her that we had a secret she did not share.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to arouse; stir up. <BR> <I>Ex. The boy's curiosity was piqued by the locked trunk.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Aeronautics, Obsolete.) to dive at in an attack. <BR><I>expr. <B>pique oneself on</B> (or <B>upon</B>), </I>to feel proud about; take pride in. <BR> <I>Ex. Men who are thought to pique themselves upon their wit (Alexander Pope).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="pique">
<B>pique, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a fabric of cotton, rayon, or silk, woven with narrow ribs or raised stripes. </DL>
<A NAME="piquet">
<B>piquet, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a complicated card game for two, played with a deck of 32 cards, all below the seven being discarded. Also, <B>picquet.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="piracy">
<B>piracy, </B>noun, pl. <B>-cies.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>robbery on the sea. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) <DD><B> a. </B>the act of publishing or using a book, play, invention, musical composition, or the like, without permission. <DD><B> b. </B>the appropriation or use of anything that belongs to another or that has been assigned to the use of another. <BR> <I>Ex. drug piracy, piracy of the airwaves.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="piragua">
<B>piragua, </B>noun. <B>=pirogue.</B></DL>
<A NAME="pirandellian">
<B>Pirandellian, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of, having to do with, or in the style of Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936), Italian playwright, poet, and novelist. </DL>
<A NAME="piranha">
<B>piranha, </B>noun, pl. <B>-nhas</B> or (collectively) <B>-nha.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a small South American fish that attacks man and other large mammals; caribe. </DL>
<A NAME="pirarucu">
<B>pirarucu, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a very large South American fish; arapaima. </DL>
