pipe down

British  

verb

1. informal (intr, adverb) to stop talking, making noise, etc

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pipe down Idioms  

1. Stop talking, be quiet, as in I wish you children would pipe down. This idiom is also used as an imperative, as in Pipe down! We want to listen to the opera. It comes from the navy, where the signal for all hands to turn in was sometimes sounded on a whistle or pipe. By 1900 it had been transferred to more general use.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pipe down

Leaders cannot just tell their number two to pipe down, because they are voted in by party members.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2025

Like Indy, kids get dragged around to places they don’t want to go to for reasons that aren’t explained, and when they whine, they’re commanded to pipe down.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2025

Bongino, instead of replying with statistics or facts, instead told Rivera to "take a Valium" and "pipe down."

From Salon ● Apr. 15, 2021

There are flies out there who are saying to one another: “Can’t she just pipe down for five freakin’ minutes and let us enjoy the ointment?”

From The Guardian ● Feb. 13, 2020

“They don’t pipe down soon, the whole neighborhood will turn out to watch.”

From "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson

Related Words

• cut off
• gag
• muffle
• mute
• muzzle
• quash
• quell
• squelch
• stifle
• subdue
• suppress