pipeline
[pahyp-lahyn]
- 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.
- 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.
- a channel of information, especially one that is direct, privileged, or confidential; inside source; reliable contact.
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- 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.
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- in the pipeline,
- Informal.in the process of being developed, provided, or completed; in the works; under way.
- Government Informal.(of funds) authorized but not spent.
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Origin of pipeline
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for pipeline
Contemporary Examples
The State Department found that with high oil prices, the tar sands would be mined for oil, pipeline or no.
The EPA felt that the State Department had not looked carefully enough at the impact of the pipeline if oil prices fell.
But with the pipeline, transportation costs drop and production would be higher.
After all, unlike the other vaccines currently in the pipeline, this one is alive and replication-competent.
Asked whether she should have mentioned the pipeline project, he merely said, “I thought her speech was great.”
Historical Examples
Why, brother, Mr. Pipeline understands it a great deal better than you do.
A PessimistRobert Timsol
At the end of this pipeline was a big pile of wet sand from the lake.
Tom Slade's Double DarePercy Keese Fitzhugh
A pipeline from the oilfields at Stalin (formerly Kucove) transmits the oil to the port of Vlore.
Area Handbook for AlbaniaEugene K. Keefe
The Senate has already passed the truth-in-lending bill, the fire safety bill, and the pipeline safety laws.
Naputul ang kuniksyun sa túbu, The connection in the pipeline broke.
A Dictionary of Cebuano VisayanJohn U. Wolff
pipeline
- a long pipe, esp underground, used to transport oil, natural gas, etc, over long distances
- a medium of communication, esp a private one
- in the pipeline in the process of being completed, delivered, or produced
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- to convey by pipeline
- to supply with a pipeline
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for pipeline
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper