bagpipe

[bag-pahyp]

noun

Often bagpipes. a reed instrument consisting of a melody pipe and one or more accompanying drone pipes protruding from a windbag into which the air is blown by the mouth or a bellows.

verb (used with object), bag·piped, bag·pip·ing.

Nautical. to back (a fore-and-aft sail) by hauling the sheet to windward.

Nearby words

Origin of bagpipe

First recorded in 1300–50, bagpipe is from the Middle English word baggepipe. See bag, pipe¹

Related formsbag·pip·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for bagpipes

There will be prayers, a moment of silence, bagpipes and a military flyover.
Dallas Lays Elaborate but Dignified Plans to Celebrate Assassination Anniversary|Helen Anders|November 2, 2013|DAILY BEAST
This Scottish fighter came in with a full honor guard, bagpipes, kilts, the whole kit.
Why Spectators Sports Thrive or Die|Michael Tomasky|February 15, 2013|DAILY BEAST
[Laughing] Do you want me to tell you the story of the Bulgarian bagpipes?
Maggie Stiefvater Talks New Novel ‘The Raven Boys,’ Fast Cars, and YA Fiction|Doug Stanton|September 28, 2012|DAILY BEAST
She speaks to Doug Stanton about her love of very fast cars, mythology, and the Bulgarian bagpipes.
Maggie Stiefvater Talks New Novel ‘The Raven Boys,’ Fast Cars, and YA Fiction|Doug Stanton|September 28, 2012|DAILY BEAST

When I was in high school, I started playing the Scottish Highland bagpipes competitively.
Maggie Stiefvater Talks New Novel ‘The Raven Boys,’ Fast Cars, and YA Fiction|Doug Stanton|September 28, 2012|DAILY BEAST
It was carried out, placed on a table, and a set of bagpipes set on the breast with the pipe in the mouth.
Historic Tales, Vol. 8 (of 15)|Charles Morris
The bagpipes are a legacy from the grim testament of war, and the savage breath of other days belches through them yet.
St. Cuthbert's|Robert E. Knowles
The gaita is a musical instrument which we may translate as bagpipes.
Unexplored Spain|Abel Chapman
You may charm seals by the bagpipes just as a snake is charmed by pipes with no bag.
The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 26, February 1893|Various
As easily moved as an Æolian harp, he has the fire, spirit and continuity of the bagpipes.
The Abandoned Farmer|Sydney Herman Preston

British Dictionary definitions for bagpipes

bagpipes

pl n

any of a family of musical wind instruments in which sounds are produced in reed pipes supplied with air from a bag inflated either by the player's mouth, as in the Irish bagpipes or Highland bagpipes of Scotland, or by arm-operated bellows, as in the Northumbrian bagpipes

bagpipe

noun

(modifier) of or relating to the bagpipesa bagpipe maker

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for bagpipes

bagpipe

late 14c., from bag (n.) + pipe (n.1); originally a favorite instrument in England as well as the Celtic lands, but by 1912 English army officers' slang for it was agony bags. Related: Bagpiper (early 14c.).