pipe-down Naut.
[f. pipe v.1]
The act of ‘piping down’ (see pipe v.1 3); a call on the boatswain's pipe signalling sailors to retire for the night.
| 1913 Dialect Notes IV. 164 Pipe-down, tattoo. Pipe-down call is sounded at 9 p.m. on board ship. 1942 Penguin New Writing XV. 8, I didn't see him again until pipe-down. 1963 Times 26 Feb. 12/7 Twenty-odd ‘pipes’ for special occasions were there to be learnt, from the ‘still’..to the complicated ‘Pipe down’ at the end of the day. |