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.

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. 2018

Examples from the Web for bagpipes

Contemporary Examples of 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
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
[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
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
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

Historical Examples of bagpipes

There may be some people who have a prejudice against the bagpipes.
The Hunted Outlaw
Anonymous
Among the party was Sergeant Clarke, who brought his bagpipes with him.
The Hunted Outlaw
Anonymous
Wandering Willie was nowhere, but the atmosphere was full of bagpipes.
Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood
George MacDonald
Pay the man that played upon me after I was made into bagpipes!
Wilfrid Cumbermede
George MacDonald
There were brass bands, drum and fife bands, and bands of bagpipes.
Ireland as It Is
Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)

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.).