fife
noun
a high-pitched transverse flute used commonly in military and marching musical groups.
fife
1 American
[fahyf]
/ faɪf /
noun
verb (used with or without object)
-
fifes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fifed,
past participle, past
-
fifing
present participle
Fife
2
American
[fahyf]
/ faɪf /
noun
-
Also called Fifeshire. a historic county in E Scotland.
-
a region in E Scotland. 504 sq. mi. (1,305 sq. km).
fife
1
British
/ faɪf /
noun
verb
Fife
2
British
/ faɪf /
noun
Fife
3
British
/ faɪf /
noun
fife
Cultural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
fifesimple
-
fifessimple
-
have fifedperfect
-
has fifedperfect
-
am fifingprogressive
-
are fifingprogressive
-
is fifingprogressive
-
have been fifingperfect progressive
-
has been fifingperfect progressive
Past
-
fifedsimple
-
had fifedperfect
-
was fifingprogressive
-
were fifingprogressive
-
had been fifingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fife
1540–50; < German Pfeife pipe 1
Explanation
A fife is a musical instrument that looks like a very small flute. Fifes are usually made of wood, rather than metal, and are common in military marching bands. A fife is much more high-pitched than a flute—it's also louder and more shrill sounding. It was a popular instrument in some of the folk music in medieval Europe, and especially during the Colonial period in America, when it was played more than violins or pianos. Because it's so portable and relatively loud for its size, the fife became widely used in military and marching bands starting during the Renaissance period.
Vocabulary lists containing fife
Music to My Ears: Instrumental Vocab
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Musical Instruments - Introductory
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Musical Instruments - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
President Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol celebrated their “ironclad alliance” Wednesday amid fife and drums on the White House lawn ahead of high-level meetings and a state dinner.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 26, 2023
There was a “Spirit of ’76”—three men with fife and drum.
From Slate ● Jun. 20, 2020
Here camp and its covert campaign of subversion feel wonderfully urgent and necessary: the gap-toothed fife player in the march toward “nonbinary.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2019
As the man struck a martial tattoo on his drum, another man in period costume began playing a fife and leading Heather’s class in circles outside George Washington’s iconic white-columned home.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 4, 2017
The Hessians moved closer yet, their lines unbroken, their bayonets thrust forward, their drum pounding, their fife screaming.
From "The Fighting Ground" by Avi
They married and Cameron relocated to Fife where she initially looked for jobs in the Scottish media industry.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026
It spent most of its working life based at Dundee Tay Bridge Steam Shed 62B, operating on services in Angus and Fife.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
The first tribunal, against NHS Fife and Dr Upton, became a high profile and controversial case.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
The first minister updated parliament on his plans for a pilot scheme in Tayside, Fife and Central during a Scottish Parliament debate on tackling violence against women.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
Capt. Draper offered a small Sustenance & Pay for the Boy’s excellent Music, could he rally us upon the Fife.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
Then the “sounds of Nazi marches with fifes and drums came through the radio.”
From Slate ● Jan. 26, 2025
His supporters, some dressed as American Revolution-era patriots and playing fifes, were thrilled by Ramaswamy’s turn in the spotlight Wednesday night.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2023
You heard the muffled drums and the fifes that played lowly.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 6, 2017
Mindy Rosenfeld and Ronn McFarlane will perform a concert of Renaissance, baroque and traditional Celtic music on flutes, fifes, harp and bagpipe.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 25, 2013
Drums beat and fifes blew and beneath everything was the steady clockwork blast of the British cannons firing at the troops stationed north of us.
From "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson
So I was, and I voted for him, drummed for him, fifed and blowed; that was no reason for my thinking him the best man we had for the office.
From The Humors of Falconbridge A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes by Falconbridge
He let himself be drummed and fifed home by the town militia towards evening.
From Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces; or, the Wedded Life, Death, and Marriage of Firmian Stanislaus Siebenkaes, Parish Advocate in the Burgh of Kuhschnappel. by Jean Paul
Unlike the buccaneers, who had fired high to cripple their enemies above decks, the French fifed low to smash the hull of their assailant.
From Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
A drum corps was organized, if that could be said to be organized in which every member drummed or fifed independently of all others.
The city fathers have decked out some of Boston's sons in Revolutionary costumes and sent them roaming through the streets fifing and drumming.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some morning in May—not far from the 10th—you will wake to hear him fifing in the elm before your window.
From Birds in the Bush by Bradford Torrey
Now they had prepared a little fleet to pass over to the Fourth of July celebration, which some queer drumming and fifing, from the opposite bank, had announced to be "on hand."
From Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 by Margaret Fuller
Farms were rather scattered in that neighborhood, but occasionally they passed country homes, when all the folks would rush forth to learn what the drumming and fifing meant.
From The Rover Boys in Camp or, The Rivals of Pine Island by Edward Stratemeyer
O nimble fifing Jack, And drummer making din So deftly on the skin, With thy rat-tattooing.
From The Humorous Poetry of the English Language; from Chaucer to Saxe by James Parton
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