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  • piper
    piper
    noun
    a person who plays on a pipe.
  • Piper
    Piper
    noun
    John. 1903–92, British artist. An official war artist in World War II, he is known esp for his watercolours of bombed churches and his stained glass in Coventry Cathedral

piper

American  
[pahy-per] / ˈpaɪ pər /

noun

pipers plural
  1. a person who plays on a pipe.

  2. a bagpiper.


idioms

  1. pay the piper,

    1. to pay the cost of something.

    2. to bear the unfavorable consequences of one's actions or pleasures.

      Someday he'll have to pay the piper for all that gambling.

piper 1 British  
/ ˈpaɪpə /

noun

  1. a person who plays a pipe or bagpipes

  2. to bear the cost of an undertaking and control it

"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

Piper 2 British  
/ ˈpaɪpə /

noun

  1. John. 1903–92, British artist. An official war artist in World War II, he is known esp for his watercolours of bombed churches and his stained glass in Coventry Cathedral

"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

piper More Idioms  
  1. see call the tune (pay the piper).


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of piper

before 1000; Middle English; Old English pīpere. See pipe 1, -er 1

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.

Piper Sandler’s Alexander Potter last week pointed to a series of developments with Tesla’s technology, including its efforts to scale up, as evidence that it has solved the “self-driving puzzle.”

From MarketWatch • Jun. 18, 2026

The most recent season concluded with a cliffhanger, with the Fifteenth Doctor regenerating into a form resembling Rose Tyler, the companion portrayed by Billie Piper.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026

Piper joined the coaching set-up at Leicestershire in July 2015 before becoming elite development coach, until he left a year later.

From BBC • Jun. 10, 2026

Markets have no way to adequately price the full impact of the crisis “since its extent and duration are unknowable,” analysts at Piper Sandler said in a recent note.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 9, 2026

Piper felt his defenses going up, like he was curling into a psychological ball, the way he’d gone into a death trance in that bronze jar.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

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