pipeline

American  

[pahyp-lahyn] / ˈpaɪpˌlaɪn /

noun

pipelines plural

1. a long tubular conduit or series of pipes, often underground, with pumps and valves for flow control, used to transport crude oil, natural gas, water, etc., especially over great distances.

2. a route, channel, or process along which something passes or is provided at a steady rate; means, system, or flow of supply or supplies.

   Freighters and cargo planes are a pipeline for overseas goods.

3. a channel of information, especially one that is direct, privileged, or confidential; inside source; reliable contact.

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verb (used with object)

pipelines, present (3rd person singular) pipelined, past participle, past pipelining present participle

1. to convey by or as if by pipeline.

   to pipeline oil from the far north to ice-free ports; to pipeline graduates into the top jobs.

idioms

1. in the pipeline,

   1. Informal. in the process of being developed, provided, or completed; in the works; under way.

   2. Government Informal. (of funds) authorized but not spent.

pipeline British  

/ ˈpaɪpˌlaɪn /

noun

1. a long pipe, esp underground, used to transport oil, natural gas, etc, over long distances

2. a medium of communication, esp a private one

3. in the process of being completed, delivered, or produced

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verb

1. to convey by pipeline

2. to supply with a pipeline

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pipelines
  plural

Participles

• pipelining
  present
• pipelined
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• pipeline
  simple
• pipelines
  simple
• have pipelined
  perfect
• has pipelined
  perfect
• am pipelining
  progressive
• are pipelining
  progressive
• is pipelining
  progressive
• have been pipelining
  perfect progressive
• has been pipelining
  perfect progressive

Past

• pipelined
  simple
• had pipelined
  perfect
• was pipelining
  progressive
• were pipelining
  progressive
• had been pipelining
  perfect progressive

Future

• will pipeline
  simple
• will have pipelined
  perfect
• will be pipelining
  progressive
• will have been pipelining
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of pipeline

First recorded in 1855–60; pipe ¹ + line ¹

Explanation

A pipeline is a series of pipes that liquid or gas flows through. A pipeline can also be a channel for other things, even ideas. The Internet is an information pipeline. No digging required! While oil and natural gas often go through a pipeline, other substances are also transported this way, including water used for irrigation and even, in some cases, beer. You can use pipeline when you talk about other quick-moving things, like a source of goods, or even spoken communication. You could call the big companies in your city a kind of “job pipeline.” If you have an idea for a community pool in the pipeline, go ahead and hire the lifeguards!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pipeline pipelines pipelined pipelining

Johnson & Johnson completed its $1 billion acquisition of biotechnology company Firefly Bio to bolster its oncology pipeline.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

The next five years are key for broadening and deepening its pipeline, and the Forte deal helps it lower portfolio-concentration risk, they add.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

A pipeline routing oil west across Saudi Arabia to a port on the Red Sea has allowed Riyadh to keep up export volumes during the war.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026

"Soriot stuck to full-year sales and profits guidance and reassuring updates on the drug development pipeline also helped to boost the shares," said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026

“These tissues enter a pipeline of millions of other samples,” he said.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

The chart shows strongly performing security and infrastructure, which provides “critical data backbones, compute pipelines and complex protection systems that generative models actively expand rather than displace.”

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026

Unlike crude exports that have been partially rerouted through pipelines to the Red Sea or Gulf of Oman, refined product exports have few alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz, analysts said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

Bonta’s office, along with state fire marshal, are also challenging that oversight in court, arguing the lines that run through Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern counties were incorrectly reclassified as intrastate pipelines.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026

And the route that the pipelines will pass through have largely been agreed.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

For instance, during the War, after the pipelines were blown up, he and his classmates had ferried water up to the girls’ dorm, each leaving his bucket at the door of a particular resident.

From "Typical American" by Gish Jen

The glass-bottom boats that take tourists out to marvel at the Gulf of Aqaba's coral formations rock in the swells of supertankers bringing Persian Gulf oil into Eilat to be. pipelined to the Mediterranean.

From Time Magazine Archive

Blackford Oakes, Yale '51, is pipelined by the old-boy network straight into the CIA.

From Time Magazine Archive

It could be pipelined to Murmansk, liquefied and shipped to the U.S.

From Time Magazine Archive

On a pipelined machine, this can take a while.

From The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Steele, Guy L.

On a pipelined machine, this can take a while. :stale pointer bug: n.

From The Jargon File, Version 2.9.10, 01 Jul 1992 by Raymond, Eric S.

“We’re pipelining our deployment playbook across several cities simultaneously now.”

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 31, 2023

Related Words

• agenda
• almanac
• card
• chronology
• diary
• docket
• journal
• lineup
• list
• program
• table
• timetable