▪ I. piper1
(ˈpaɪpə(r))
[OE. p{iacu}pere, f. p{iacu}pe, pipe n.1 + -ere, -er1.]
1. a. One who plays on a pipe (esp. a strolling musician); in Scotland spec. one who plays on the bagpipe.
| c 975 Rushw. Gosp. Matt. ix. 23 Þa cwom se hælend in hus þas aldor-monnes & þa ᵹesæh piperas [Ags. Gosp. hwistleras] & meniᵹu ruxlende. a 1100 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 311/21 Tibicen, pipere. 11.. Ibid. 539/23 Tibicen, pipare. c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame iii. 144 Pipers of alle Duche tonge. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 401/1 Pypare, fistulator. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iv. xiii. (1634) 621 As the commmon people say, he is an evill piper but a good fidler. 1574 Reg. Privy Council Scot. II. 418 Edmond Broun, ane Hieland pyper. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado v. iv. 131 Let's haue a dance... Strike vp Pipers. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 97 There is 6d. allowed to a piper for playing to the clippers all the day. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 7 ¶3 At their convivial assemblies..to hear a piper. 1842 Browning (title of poem) The Pied Piper of Hamelin. |
| attrib. 14.. Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 693/8 Hec fistilatrix, a piper wyfe. 1812 W. Tennant Anster F. ii. xlv, No paltry vagrant piper-carle is he. |
b. Phrases. † piper's cheeks: swollen or inflated cheeks, as of one blowing a pipe. † drunk as a piper: quite drunk. piper's news (Sc.): news already well known. to pay the piper: i.e. for piping to lead the dance; hence, to defray the cost, or bear the expense or loss, incident to some undertaking or proceeding. by the piper(s) (that played before Moses): an Irish oath or expletive.
| 1602 Withal Dict. 286/1 That hath bigge or great cheekes, as they tearme them, pipers cheekes, bucculentus. 1681 T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 29 (1713) I. 190 After all this Dance he has led the Nation, he must at last come to pay the Piper himself. 1727 J. Gay in Miscellanies III. 207 Drunk as a Piper all day long. 1770 Gentl. Mag. XLI. 560 As drunk as a Piper. 1772 R. Graves Spir. Quix. x. xxix, Jerry..proceeded so long in recommending sobriety, and in tossing off horns of ale, that he became as drunk as a piper. 1753 Chesterfield Lett. (1792) IV. 39 The other Powers cannot well dance, when neither France nor the maritime Powers can..pay the piper. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas ii. vii. ¶23 We will make Doctor Oloroso pay the piper to our dancing. 1822 Hogg Perils of Man I. ii. 29, ‘I came expressly to inform you’—‘Came with piper's news’, said the lady, ‘which the fiddler has told before you’. 1865 ‘Mark Twain’ in California (San Francisco) 23 Dec. 4/3 He came home drunk as a piper. 1884 ‘Cruck-a-Leaghan’ & ‘Slieve Gallion’ Lays & Legends N. Ireland 16, I hope they don't hear me, Or else, by the piper, they'll make me sing sad. 1892 J. Barlow Irish Idylls ix. 274 Be the piper, sure enough I was up there splicin' the handle of your mother's ould basket. 1894 A. Gordon Northward Ho! 202 If he..was as drunk as a piper, an' ye yersel' had only twa gills,..he'd pruve tae ye..that ye were drunk, an' no him. 1895 Daily News 18 Dec. 9/1 Londoners had paid the piper, and should choose the tune. 1899 Century Mag. Nov. 45 Be the piper that played afore Moses I'll call out me regiment of throopers. 1928 ‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country i. 2 Be the poipers, we've had enough [rain] for this toime of year! |
† c. Applied to a tree that furnishes wood for pipes. Obs. nonce-use. In quot. appositive.
| c 1381 Chaucer Parl. Foules 178 The byldere ok, and ek the hardy assh, The pilere elm,..The boxtre pipere,..The saylynge fyr,..The shetere Ew. |
2. Popular name of several kinds of fish. a. A species of gurnard, Trigla lyra; so called from the sound it makes when caught. † b. In quot. 1674, = angel-fish. Obs. c. In New Zealand, the garfish, Hemirhamphus intermedius.
| 1601 Chester Love's Mart., Dial. lxxxiii, The Piper good for to be eaten. a 1672 Willughby Icthyogr. (1686) Tab. S. 1, Lyra Rond., The Piper. 1674 Ray Collect. Words, (Sea) Fishes 99 The Piper, Raio-squatina Rondel... The Cornish men call another Fish, viz. a sort of Cuculus or Gurnard by the name of Piper. 1766 [C. Anstey] Bath Guide iv. 63 She has order'd for Dinner a Piper and Dory. 1769 Pennant Zool. III. 234 The Piper... Trigla Lyra..esteemed an excellent fish. 1871 Field 25 Nov. 457/1, I look on the Piper as the float fish of New Zealand. Ibid., I do not think that the New Zealand piper is as perfect in flavour as the Melbourne one. |
| attrib. 1611 Cotgr., Aiguille,..a Horne-backe, Piper-fish, Gane-fish, or Horne-fish. 1812 Pennant's Zool. 374 The piper gurnard is frequently taken on the western coasts. 1837 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 185 The piper gurnard,..when taken from the water emits a singular sound. |
3. a. A young pigeon, a squab. b. A sandpiper (Cent. Dict.).
| 1885 Newton Dict. Birds (1894), Pigeon, French Pigeon, Italian Piccione and Pipione, Latin Pipio, literally a nestling⁓bird that pipes or cries out, a ‘Piper’—the very name now in use among Pigeon-fanciers. |
4. a. A name given to beetles of the Curculionidæ, with a long proboscis. b. A sea-urchin, Cidaris papillata, with club-shaped spines, fancied to resemble a bagpipe (also called piper urchin).
| 1711 Phil. Trans. XXVII. 352 Small English Pipers, or long-snouted Beetles. 1809 Edmonstone Zetland Isl. II. 320 E[chinus] Cidaris, found in deep water, Piper. |
5. A broken-winded horse: see quots. Cf. roarer.
| 1831 Youatt Horse x. 196 Some horses make a shrill noise when in quick action; they are said to be Pipers. 1844 Stephens Bk. Farm II. 227 There are many degrees of broken wind, which receive appellations according to the noise emitted by the horse; and on this account he is called a piper, trumpeter. |
6. (See quot. and cf. piping vbl. n.1 2, quot. 1884.)
| 1884 J. Phin Dict. Apiculture 53 Piper, an after-swarm having a virgin queen. |
▪ II. piper2
(ˈpaɪpə(r))
[f. pipe n.1 or v.2 + -er1.]
† 1. (?) A workman who lays or repairs pipes; a plumber. Obs.
| 1456 Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889) I. 291 The feys that the pyperys had befor thys tym for har wachyng about the town,..be yreryt and payet to the makinge of the pypys of the sayd cytte for a yer. 1469 Ibid. 332 [Admissions to franchise..Richard Bennet,] piper; [John Welles,] packer. [John Talbot,] pyper. |
2. One who smokes tobacco in a pipe. Now rare.
| 1632 D. Lupton London & C. Carbonadoed 85 He is for the most part a potter and piper. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 41 Pipers and Potters, to sit in Tavernes. 1897 19th Cent. May 821 The early ‘piper’ loses his growth, becomes hoarse, effete, lazy, and stunted. |
3. Name for a kind of caddis-worm (also piper caddis), which forms a pipe or tube.
| 1653 Walton Angler xii. 231–2 One Cadis called a Piper, whose husk or case is a piece of reed about an inch long or longer... There is also a lesser Cadis-worm, called a Cock⁓spur..it is much less than the Piper Cadis. |
4. A dog used to lure wild fowl into the pipe of a decoy; a decoy-dog.
| 1865 W. White E. Eng. I. 111 If given to barking or to frolic, or to take fright without occasion,..such a dog will never do for a ‘piper’. 1886 Athenæum 21 Aug. 231/1 A clever arrangement of screens over which a bushy tailed dog not unlike a fox—the ‘piper’, as it is called—is taught to leap at the word of command. |
5. A fissure in the coal in a mine, from which gas escapes: = blower1 4.
| 1883 Standard 8 Nov. 5/8 [The explosion] was caused by what is known as a ‘piper’, or air-hole in the coal. 1883 in Gresley Gloss. Coal Mining. |
6. Confectionery. One who ornaments cakes, etc. with sugar piping: see pipe v.2 4 b.
| 1904 Daily Chron. 20 June 11/7 Pastrycook and Confectioner..good piper. |