Pied Piper
Americannoun
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the hero of a German folk legend, popularized in The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1842) by Robert Browning.
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Sometimes pied piper a person who induces others to follow or imitate them, especially by means of false or extravagant promises.
noun
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Also called: the Pied Piper of Hamelin. (in German legend) a piper who rid the town of Hamelin of rats by luring them away with his music and then, when he was not paid for his services, lured away its children
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(sometimes not capitals) a person who entices others to follow him
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.
Articulate, charismatic and based in the host city of the next Paralympic Games, Frech has positioned himself to be the pied piper of the Paralympic movement for years.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 29, 2024
Every time Pitino walked down a hallway, he looked like the pied piper with the New Yorkers trailing in his wake.
From Washington Post • Mar. 18, 2023
Penix was a sort of pied piper of one more year in college for the Huskies.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 20, 2022
The movement was caused partly by a perception that Mr. Musk, never one to be told what to do, was almost like “a pied piper for extending boundaries,” Mr. Chakravorti said.
From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2022
Fashion's pied piper, with magical air, Has wooed them away, with their flaxen hair And laughing eyes, we don't know where, And no one can tell where they're banished.
From Point Lace and Diamonds by Day, Francis
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.
