fife
noun
a high-pitched transverse flute used commonly in military and marching musical groups.
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fife
1 American
[fahyf]
/ faɪf /
noun
verb (used with or without object)
-
fifes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fifed,
past participle, past
-
fifing
present participle
Fife
2
American
[fahyf]
/ faɪf /
noun
-
Also called Fifeshire. a historic county in E Scotland.
-
a region in E Scotland. 504 sq. mi. (1,305 sq. km).
fife
1
British
/ faɪf /
noun
verb
Fife
2
British
/ faɪf /
noun
Fife
3
British
/ faɪf /
noun
fife
Cultural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
fifesimple
-
fifessimple
-
have fifedperfect
-
has fifedperfect
-
am fifingprogressive
-
are fifingprogressive
-
is fifingprogressive
-
have been fifingperfect progressive
-
has been fifingperfect progressive
Past
-
fifedsimple
-
had fifedperfect
-
was fifingprogressive
-
were fifingprogressive
-
had been fifingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fife
1540–50; < German Pfeife pipe 1
Explanation
A fife is a musical instrument that looks like a very small flute. Fifes are usually made of wood, rather than metal, and are common in military marching bands. A fife is much more high-pitched than a flute—it's also louder and more shrill sounding. It was a popular instrument in some of the folk music in medieval Europe, and especially during the Colonial period in America, when it was played more than violins or pianos. Because it's so portable and relatively loud for its size, the fife became widely used in military and marching bands starting during the Renaissance period.
Vocabulary lists containing fife
Music to My Ears: Instrumental Vocab
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Musical Instruments - Introductory
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Musical Instruments - Middle School
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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.
See Examples For:
“Death to My Hometown” carried a faint whiff of Revolutionary War cosplay as several E Streeters temporarily became a miniature fife and drum corps.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2024
Items up for big include a private fife lesson with the resident fifer on the premises, table linens, getaways to other historically-minded spots, toy soldiers, golf packages, china, books — well, you get the idea.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 20, 2022
When Daudet is unsuccessful in discovering the source of an old proverb, a fife player advises him to seek it in “the cicadas’ library,” meaning a field where one lies on one’s back and contemplates.
From New York Times ● Jul. 1, 2021
There was a “Spirit of ’76”—three men with fife and drum.
From Slate ● Jun. 20, 2020
He knew that soon fife would be altered forever one way or another, but nothing in any cell of his being allowed him to back away.
From "Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen
Now 47 and living in Dunfermline, Fife, Kevin says his prized possession was one that brought together his two sporting loves.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
The company owns the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, along with fabrication sites at Arnish on the Isle of Lewis, Methil in Fife and Appledore in Devon.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
A UK-only bidding competition will decide who builds the floating docks but Navantia UK, which owns sites in Fife and Belfast, is seen as a frontrunner.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
The team took inspiration for the setting from the tiny fishing village of St Monans in Fife.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
Capt. Draper offered a small Sustenance & Pay for the Boy’s excellent Music, could he rally us upon the Fife.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
Then the “sounds of Nazi marches with fifes and drums came through the radio.”
From Slate ● Jan. 26, 2025
His supporters, some dressed as American Revolution-era patriots and playing fifes, were thrilled by Ramaswamy’s turn in the spotlight Wednesday night.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2023
You heard the muffled drums and the fifes that played lowly.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 6, 2017
Mindy Rosenfeld and Ronn McFarlane will perform a concert of Renaissance, baroque and traditional Celtic music on flutes, fifes, harp and bagpipe.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 25, 2013
The drums marched ahead, and there was music on the fifes, and behind the men who carried the coffin walked the wife and two children....
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
Unlike the buccaneers, who had fired high to cripple their enemies above decks, the French fifed low to smash the hull of their assailant.
From Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
A drum corps was organized, if that could be said to be organized in which every member drummed or fifed independently of all others.
So I was, and I voted for him, drummed for him, fifed and blowed; that was no reason for my thinking him the best man we had for the office.
From The Humors of Falconbridge A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes by Falconbridge
He let himself be drummed and fifed home by the town militia towards evening.
From Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces; or, the Wedded Life, Death, and Marriage of Firmian Stanislaus Siebenkaes, Parish Advocate in the Burgh of Kuhschnappel. by Jean Paul
The city fathers have decked out some of Boston's sons in Revolutionary costumes and sent them roaming through the streets fifing and drumming.
From Time Magazine Archive
Now they had prepared a little fleet to pass over to the Fourth of July celebration, which some queer drumming and fifing, from, the opposite bank, had announced to be "on hand."
From At Home And Abroad Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe by Arthur B. Fuller
However, he soon sank back on his throne again, and after a little more drumming and fifing, everything reverted to its state of wooden repose.
From The Serapion Brethren, Vol. I. by Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann
O nimble fifing Jack, And drummer making din So deftly on the skin, With thy rat-tattooing.
From The Humorous Poetry of the English Language; from Chaucer to Saxe by James Parton
In these drumming and fifing times the babies suck in quarrel with their mother’s milk.
From Southern Literature From 1579-1895 A comprehensive review, with copious extracts and criticisms for the use of schools and the general reader by Louise Manly
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