fife
noun
a high-pitched transverse flute used commonly in military and marching musical groups.
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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
A fife and drum corps marched in 18th-century finery.
From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2021
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
“All your fife you’ve lied, manipulated people, and tried to avoid consequences,” she said.
From "Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen
Fife Council said it was awaiting "formal confirmation" from an investigation into the incident, but an initial report did identify "improperly disposed batteries within the waste stream" as a possible cause.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
The public and the press were excluded from the three-hour Standards Committee meeting on Wednesday despite Fife Cook stating he wanted the hearing to be open to all.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
The committee resolved Fife Cook had failed to treat others with courtesy and respect and had brought the council into disrepute.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
A handful of commercial helicopter operators like Skyhook, based out of Fife Airport in Glenrothes, will provide this specialist response.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Shem & John was lagging behind, striking each other on the Shoulders, & Prince was before us, playing 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
Although it is not staffed by guides, if you press a button on the porch, a comprehensive account of the building’s history plays to the tune of fifes and drums.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 21, 2016
The drums marched ahead, and there was music on the fifes, and behind the men who carried the coffin walked the wife and two children....
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
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
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
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
No pomp, no fireworks, no cannon-shot, no drumming and fifing, no music, no event that had occurred!
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 21 by Thomas Carlyle
However, he soon sank back on his throne again, and after a little more drumming and fifing, everything reverted to its state of wooden repose.
From The Serapion Brethren, Vol. I. by Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann
On the left flank of the little column I kept very easily in touch because of this same silly drumming and fifing.
From The Little Red Foot by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
Up from the East river come the 130 sounds of orderly drummers drumming, of regimental fifers fifing.
From The Only Woman in the Town And Other Tales of the American Revolution by Sarah J. Prichard
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
