Indian pipe

American  

noun

1. a leafless, pearly white, saprophytic plant, Monotropa uniflora, of North America and Asia, having a solitary white flower and resembling a tobacco pipe.

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Indian pipe British  

noun

1. a white or pinkish saprophytic woodland plant, Monotropa uniflora, of the N hemisphere, with a solitary nodding flower resembling a pipe: family Monotropaceae

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Etymology

Origin of Indian pipe

An Americanism dating back to 1785–95

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Indian pipe

Indian pipe is a ghost of a plant: It lacks chlorophyll, so it can’t make its own food with sunlight the way most plants do.

From Slate ● May 17, 2016

So Fox took the flute and began to play loudly, and Rabbit slipped hurriedly out of sight, pretending to go for his Indian pipe.

From Canadian Fairy Tales by MacMillan, Cyrus

Lane is said to have given Sir Walter Raleigh an Indian pipe and to have shown him how to use it.

From The Social History of Smoking by Apperson, George Latimer

As he did so, the long-stemmed Indian pipe fell from his hand across Longears' nose, half covering the letters he had traced with it on the sand.

From The Last of the Foresters Or, Humors on the Border; A story of the Old Virginia Frontier by Cooke, John Esten

That evening, as Jacob sat on the three-legged stool smoking his short Indian pipe, he again would have the whole story of their wanderings over, and the history of all their doings and contrivances.

From Lost in the Backwoods by Traill, Catharine Parr Strickland