Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pipe n.1

1. with ref. to the reproduction of sound [abbr. SE windpipe + image of the throat as a ‘pipe’].

(a) a voice.

[UK]Lyly Euphues and his England (2009) 58: Hee also strayned his olde pype, and thus beganne...
[UK]Dekker Shoemakers’ Holiday IV i: My organe pipe squeaks this morning for want of licoring.
[UK]C. Coffey Devil to Pay I ii: There’s a perpetual Motion in that Tongue of hers, and a damn’d shrill Pipe.
[UK]Foote Knights in Works (1799) I 78: jenny: [Sings.] Tim: You have a rare pipe of your own, Miss.
[UK]Foote Maid of Bath Works (1799) II 216: Won’t a single sore throat destroy the boasted power of your pipe?
[UK]‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Odes of Importance’ Works (1794) III 186: Th’ Attorney-General’s tiger gripe / Would quickly stop the Raggamuffin’s pipe.
[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 177: His old pipe was grown so weak, / He did not seem to talk, but squeak.
[UK]‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 40: Deil a bane o’ me can sing now ava. It’s far ower high for my auld pipe.
[UK]Mr Mathews’ Comic Annual 23: Hark! I hear another voice: I must look out for squalls – that’s not Jerry’s pipe.
[UK]W.J. Neale Paul Periwinkle 236: That respectable young gentleman [...] is squealing out in the most outrageous way; and if they should catch a tone of his pipe, you’ll be kind enough to understand it’s all Hookey Walkar with Jack Spratt.
[US]‘Ouida’ Signa I 36: What a pipe this brat has!
[UK]Stephens & Yardley ‘All Nations’ Little Jack Sheppard 46: If it comes to foreign languages Your pipe I’ll put out bang.

(b) a song.

[UK]Fletcher Chances V iii: A Song I must sing it: pray bear with me, And pardon my rude Pipe.

(c) (Aus./US) a (dubious) story.

[US]Ade ‘Why “Gondola” Was Put Away’ In Babel 43: ‘Say, what kind of a pipe is this?’ asked the listener, [...] indicating scepticism.
[US]K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. iii: Can you beat that for a pipe?
[Aus]Truth (Brisbane) 16 May 11/2: Governor King called these lampoons, and libels ‘pipes.’ Why, I am unable to say.

(d) (also pipes) a telephone.

[Aus]E. Dyson ‘On a Bender’ Benno and Some of the Push 80: [He] wanted ter call up the Premier down the pipe; ’n’ when they wouldn’t let ’im et the tellerphone he got proud ’n’ hurt.
[US]K. Kolb Getting Straight 126: Get on the pipe to the ad office.
[US]G. Swarthout Skeletons 74: Doc Shelley, who couldn’t wait till I was out his door before he was on the pipes to Pingo Chavez.

(e) (US) a saxophone.

[US]P.E. Miller Down Beat’s Yearbook of Swing n.p.: pipe : a saxophone.

(f) the throat.

[US] M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] I’d spent the last few minutes working up enough spit to carry it [i.e a tablet] down the pipe.

2. with ref. to the pipe’s tubular shape [the double entendres cover tobacco pipes, bag-pipes and water pipes].

(a) (also piper, standpipe) the penis.

R. Barnfield Shepherdes Confession in Grosart (1876) 204: By clasping her in my armes but she t’ning aside, espies my iuory pipe.
[UK]Dekker & Webster Westward Hoe II i: Were I the proprest, sweetest, plumpest, Cherry-cheekt, Corrall-lipt woman in a kingdome, I would not daunce after one mans pipe.
[UK]Middleton & Rowley A Fair Quarrel IV i: [of a syphilitic] It was the burning of his pipe that kill’d him.
[UK]R. Brome Covent-Garden Weeded I i: Hells broke loose; this comes of your new fingle-fangle fashion, your preposterous Italian way forsooth: would I could have kept my old ways of pots and pipes, and my Stong-water course for customers.
[UK]J. Cotgrave ‘Tobacco’ Wits Interpreter (1671) 228: She will be ready at your call, And take Tobacco, Pipe, and all [...] Your stopper must be stiff and strong, It must be large and long, Or else she swears you do her wrong, She scorns your weak Tobacco.
[UK] ‘A Creature ffor ffeature’ in Furnivall & Hales Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript of Loose and Humorous Songs (1868) 53: Then thought I, & thought noe lye, / perhapps his pipe is not yett ripe.
[UK]‘Peter Aretine’ Strange Newes 4: Mol. They come in with their fowl Pipes, and I like an able Doctress clean them with a P—. I cleane the stem and also burn the bowle.
[UK]Dryden An Evening’s Love Act III: If we Men could but learn to value our selves, we should soon take down our Mistresses from all their Altitudes, and make ’em dance after our Pipes, longer perhaps, than we had a mind to’t.
[UK]M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 66: But if you needs my Pipes be draining. / And by my Mumping know my meaning; / In short I love you.
[UK] ‘The Merry Bag-Pipes’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1891) VII:2 327: The Shepherd he said, ‘As I am a man, / I have kept playing from morning till noon; / Thou know’st I can do no more than I can, / My pipe is clearly out of tune’.
[UK]T. Brown Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 13: You can no sooner prepare yourself to make water [...] but you shall have an obliging female look thro’ her fingers to take the dimensions of the pipe that emits it.
[UK]N. Ward Secret Hist. of Clubs 184: When Nature is so opprest that they [i.e. ‘the greatest Guzzlers’] want Leakage, they may turn their Conduit Pipes into the Tap-Holes of the Casks they sit upon, without giving themselves the Trouble of a Remove to the Chamber-Pot.
[UK] in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 225: At length I said I’d put my Pipes in Tune: To give a Glister, with that I kiss’d her.
[UK] ‘The Silent Flute’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 228: Young Damon, who her Meaning knew, / Took out his pipe to charm her.
[UK]Cleland Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 119: That store-bag of nature’s prime sweets which is so pleasingly attached to its conduit-pipe.
[UK]G. Stevens ‘The Pipe of Love’ Songs Comic and Satyrical 117: The Pipe of Love’s the Pipe for me.
[Ire] ‘The Gobbio’ Chap Book Songs 6: She spyed a Piper peeping out, / Between two little drummers he lay.
[UK]‘The Flats & Sharps of the Nation’ in Hilaria 26: In laughing at Mara, so strain’d it, / That his pipe let the piss in his breeches.
[UK] ‘Gingling Johnny’ Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 14: Johnny spied all about, then his pipe he lugged out, / And he played her a tune so brisk and clever.
[UK] ‘Female Tobacconist’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 42: Then he pull’d out his pipe, and said you gay slut, / Before I have your shag, I’ll see your broad cut.
[UK]‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 107: Just as I pulled out, her cunt closed round my prick with a strong muscular action, as if it did not wish the warm pipe withdrawn.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 177: pipe the urethra.
[US]C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 237: He wants to suck pipe.
[US]‘Victoria Parker’ Pay for Play Cheerleaders 🌐 Her blue skirt up, her sweater up, her tits pointed and proud, jiggling salaciously as she screwed Mr. Dixon’s nine-inch pipe of prick.
[UK](con. 1944) C. Logue Prince Charming 51: Chris, when you’re coming, you wish your pipe was a mile long.
[UK]R. Antoni Grandmother’s Erotic Folktales 41: With little more than a flick of she slender wrist, she swiped he standpipe off clean at the base!
[UK]Guardian Rev. 6 Aug. 13: He calls his penis [...] ‘lead pipe’, ‘full length’, ‘stiffy’, ‘big water pipe’.
[Ire]P. McCabe Holy City 182: I rode your mother, C.J. Slipped her a length of pipe, as the boys used to say.
[US]G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 223: Gino [...] had a pipe on him, and on top of his size he’d been a litttle rough.

(b) the anus.

[UK]J. Taylor Crabtree Lectures 116: Though shee [...] kept her selfe sweete and cleane, he came home every night with a foule and stinking Pipe.
[UK]A. Burgess Enderby Outside in Complete Enderby (2002) 365: It’s not up to him to come back, up-your-piping and that.
L. Inglis Twitter 4 Apr. 🌐 Congratulations to all the fuckbags profiteering in these desperate times [...] And stuff your algorithm up the pipe.

(c) (also quill-pipes) in pl., top boots [? the tubular shape, or cleaning with pipe-clay].

[US] ‘Flash Lang.’ Confessions of Thomas Mount 18: Boots, quill-pipes.
[US]H. Tufts Autobiog. (1930) 292: Quillpipes signifies boots.
[UK]Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
[UK]Vulgarities of Speech Corrected.

(d) the vagina.

[UK] ‘The Smutty Chimney Sweeper’ Regular Thing, And No Mistake 82: Miss Lively’s pipe I went to clear [...] I fork’d my cloth and up I got, but soon I very sore felt.
[Aus]‘Nino Culotta’ Cop This Lot 161: ‘So put that in yer pipe an’ smoke ut.’ ‘I wouldn’t put ut in an old black gin’s pipe an’ let her smoke ut.’.

(e) (US) a gun’s firing chamber.

[US]R. Cea No Lights, No Sirens 58: He pulled the .45 from his waistband, felt the weight of it, then pulled the slide back slightly, checking the load. There was one in the pipe.

(f) (Irish und.) a silencer, a suppressor.

[Ire]Breen & Conlon Hitmen 250: ‘Is she automatic? Revolver?’ ‘Beretta with a pipe! [...] Beretta with a silencer’.

3. in drug uses.

(a) a cigar.

[US]Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/2: Pipe, [...] a cigar.

(b) an opium pipe and the measure of opium it contains; thus pipe, the pipe, the smoking of opium.

Dly News (London) 1 Sept. 2/2: The one nearest the tray cannot smoke more than three or four pipes of opium a day.
[UK]J.C. Parkinson Places and People 30: He’ll lay like that for hours. Look! he’s wakin’ up now to light his pipe again.
[UK]Dickens Edwin drood in Works 33 (1900) 285: Why didn't you come and have a pipe or two of comfort? Did they leave you money, perhaps, and so you didn't want comfort?
[UK]J. Greenwood In Strange Company 236: Out of the cupboard he produced his tools – the two pipes, a sort of tinderbox [...] a slender iron bodkin fixed in a little handle, and a small brass lamp. [Ibid.] 238: They had come for a ‘drunk,’ and would probably indulge in half-dozen more pipes before the evening was over.
[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 18 Oct. 3/3: ‘Hurry up there with a pipe; I’ve been waiting long enough. Here’s your money, give me a pipe’.
[US]Sun (NY) 20 May 2/7: The pleasure seeker smokes from five to twenty pipes at a time.
[US]E.W. Townsend A Daughter of the Tenements 227: He hastily prepared his pipe and had taken four or five long deep draughts by which a smoker exhausts one preparation.
[US]H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 87: ‘I wisht,’ she said sadly, ‘as I could quit the pipe.’.
[US]Wash. Post 3 July 3/1: Last year you could get a hop-toy filled fer four bits, while now Lum San hands out about four pfun — just covers the bottom of a shell. I’m goin’ ter quit the pipe.
[US]Journal Amer. Instit. of Criminal Law and Criminology VIII Jan. 749–56: Fifty, or one-half, began by associating with bad companions at night, frequenting dance halls, saloons, poolrooms, and later ‘joints,’ where they were induced to try the pipe.
[UK]‘Sax Rohmer’ Dope 93: It contained four singular-looking pipes, the parts of which she began to fit together. The first and largest of these had a thick bamboo stem, and amber mouthpiece, and a tiny, disproportionate bowl of brass.
[US]J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 190: The pipe brought peace of mind, contentment and happiness of a sort.
[US](con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 112: They had in their room about ten thousand dollars worth of property they had stolen [...] and they were smoking the pipe (opium).
[US]‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 115: Anna and Jake smoked ‘the pipe’ (opium).
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 236: the pipe Smoking opium.
[US]‘Curt Cannon’ ‘Good & Dead’ I Like ’Em Tough (1958) 77: Go smoke your pipe, Chink.
[US]C. Himes Big Gold Dream 117: Fix my pipe and bring my rod.
[US](con. 1945) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 297: You likee the pipe, huh, Lun?
[Aus]V. Viidikas ‘Island of Gems’ India Ink (1984) 45: The mat slides to the man preparing a pipe for us. One packet of opium costs around 50 cents Australian and makes five or six pipes.
[UK]D. Fallowell One Hot Summer in St Petersburg 282: For me a night’s resort would consist of 3 ‘pipes’.
[Aus]P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 55: He closed the door [...] ‘Pipe?’ [...] Mr Ling directed me to a couch and he brought out the makings.

(c) (also pipey, pipie) an opium addict.

[UK]D. Ahearn Confessions of a Gunman 124: Some pipeys say it’s as good as drinking booze.
[US]B. Dai Opium Addiction in Chicago 202: Pipies. One who smokes opium.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 177: pipe [...] A person under the influence of intoxicants.
[US]Murtagh & Harris Who Live In Shadow (1960) 119: You can recognize ‘pipes,’ opium addicts, by the odour which clings to them.
[US](con. 1930s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 101: There’s nothing like a pipie. They kept themselves immaculate – dresses, furs [...] Nobody even knew I was a pipe.

(d) a marijuana or hashish pipe.

[US]Kerouac letter May in Charters I (1995) 582: Won’t bring pipes or benny or anything.
[UK]T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 72: Miss Roach sat next to me working away on the pipe.
[SA]L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 96: A ‘college’ for dagga smokers [where] young girls and boys gathered [...] to ‘smoke the pipe’.
[US]E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
[US](con. c.1967) J. Ferrandino Firefight 164: They passed the pipe around. ‘This ain’t bad for loose shit,’ Amaro said.
[US]T. Williams Crackhouse 74: Then she holds out the pipe and says, ‘You know, this shit is real good, Liz’.
[SA]Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 15 May 🌐 Revellers suck the ‘peace pipe’ of dagga.
[US]ONDCP Street Terms 17: Pipe — Crack pipe; marijuana pipe.

(e) a vein into which a drug can be injected.

[US](con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 61: If you like junk you keep schmeckin and shootin, then the skin pop goes to the big pipe.
q. in L. Fiedler Mutants in Coll. Essays 2 (1971) 397: I tie up and the main pipe [...] swells like a prideful beggar beneath the skin.
[US]Smith & Gay Heroin in Perspective.
[US]D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 343: pipe: 1. A large vein to use for mainlining.
[US]ONDCP Street Terms 17: Pipe — [...] vein into which a drug is injected.
[[Scot](con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 70: Ah find a vein easy, some ay us have fucking oil pipes in our airms].

(f) a marijuana smoker.

[US]E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).

(g) (also rock pipe) a pipe for smoking base cocaine, crack cocaine, or methamphetamine; thus, by metonymy, the drug itself.

[US](con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 71: I feel that basing will completely destroy her will to say no; I believe that pipe will take her away from me.
[UK]J. Mowry Six Out Seven (1994) 439: Sucking another hit from the pipe, he pressed his palms to Hobbes’s chest.
[Aus]L. Davies Candy 80: The pipe made the rounds.
[UK]B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 184: They got the rock pipe out.
[US]G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 31: ‘They using heroin?’ [...] The resident shook his head. ‘The pipe.’.
[US]J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 58: The chipped-to-shit pipe [...] so hot she needed an over mitt to hold it.
[US]M. McBride Swollen Red Sun 109: It wasn’t just the shit bums that got addicted to the pipe.

4. (US, anything that is easily accomplished; a certainty; thus US campus) pipe course, an easy academic course [abbr. lead-pipe cinch under lead n.].

[US]H. Blossom Checkers 50: It was a ‘pipe’ he’d lose it all the minute his luck turned.
[US]H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 16: It’s a pipe [...] This one’ll be 200 to 1, and she’ll breeze in on the bit.
[US]S. Ford Shorty McCabe 108: Ever try to tear off a lot of extemporaneous lies, twenty to the minute? It’s no pipe.
[US]G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 134: It’s a pipe, Stevey, with nine to twenty thousand ready money in the safe.
[US]T.A. Dorgan ‘Daffydills’ in El Paso Herald (TX) 31 July 8: Im [sic] a chauffeur now — Oh what a pipe job.
[US]Ade Hand-made Fables 208: It was a Pipe that Christine went plumb off her Noodle as soon as she learned that, by giving up a mere Pinch of Change, she could witness a lovely Scene.
[US]M. West Pleasure Man (1997) Act I: There’s nothin’ to it, Steve, it’s an easy pipe for this baby.
[US]G. Milburn No More Trumpets 75: Ah! What you students term a pipe course, eh, Wingate?
[US]V.G. Burns Female Convict (1960) 115: It’s a pipe [...] All you need is the dough.
[US]C.B. Davis Rebellion of Leo McGuire (1953) 194: It’s a pipe there was some sort of celebration on the East Side that Wednesday.
[US]W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 255: How could he tell? Geeziz, that was a pipe. Once you’ve had a monkey on your back you can always see it on anyone else’s.
[US]M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 38: ‘What if you lose?’ Billy asked bleakly. ‘I won’t. That game’s a pipe.’.
[US]Baker et al. CUSS 171: Pipe Easy course.
[US] (ref. to 1940) W. Safire What’s The Good Word? 305: At Ann Arbor in 1940 we called a gut course a ‘pipe.’.

5. constr. with the, a euph. for hell [? H.E. Bates nonce use].

[UK]H.E. Bates Breath of French Air (1985) 127: And what the pipe does all that mean?
[UK]H.E. Bates Oh! To be in England (1985) 338: Who the pipe’s it from?
[UK]H.E. Bates Little of What You Fancy (1985) 432: What the pipe is genetics?

6. any form of clubbing weapon [SE lead pipe].

[US](con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 265: That pipe/shiv attack that wounded Mickey and left his stooge Davey Goldman a vegetable?
[US]Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 88: Pipe [...] Any weapon that is wielded by a swinging force.

7. constr. with the, the River Thames.

[UK]J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 160: ‘You’re not the police, are ya, really?’ says the kid in an accent that’s pure over-the-pipe Saff London.

8. (US black gang) a gun.

F. Stuart ‘Dispatches from the Rap Wars’ in chicagomag.com 🌐 pipe or pole. A gun.

9. see pipes n.1 (3)

In terms pertaining to drugs

In derivatives

In compounds

pipe fiend (n.) [fiend n.]

(US) a regular opium user.

[US]S. Crane in Sun (N.Y.) 20 Oct. in Stallman (1966) 145: Finally he may become a full-fledged pipe fiend, a man with a yen-yen.
[US]I.L. Nascher Wretches of Povertyville 229: Drunks and pipe fiends [...] find recreation, pleasure, excitement and consolation in the whiskey glass or pipe.
[US]G.J. Kneeland Commercialized Prostitution in N.Y. City 90: A ‘pipe fiend’ and a gambler.
[US]B. Dai Opium Addiction in Chicago 172: The ‘pipe fiend’ or the opium smoker generally looks down upon the ‘skin shooter’.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
pipe head (n.) [-head sfx (4)]

1. (drugs) a regular user of crack cocaine.

[US]R. Price Clockers 3: Seeing her two months from now, no more baby fat, stinky, just another pipehead.
[US]G. Sikes 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 47: With the way I was dressed, and I was talking to myself, she thought I was some crazy pipehead.
[US]G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 10: A couple of young citizens charged with beating a pipehead to death.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

[US]J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 228: If Marv got ’em high, they’ll wanna head back and scarf around for more. If they think he’s bunk [...] they’ll wanna head back and get you. By pipehead logic, you ripped them off.
pipe man (n.)

a seller of crack cocaine.

[US]R. Shell Iced 3: Get some money for the pipe-man.
pipe smoker (n.)

(drugs) an opium user.

[US](con. 1900s) J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 25: The ‘pipe smokers’ were the boys who lay around the little red lamp and inhaled the opium through a long bamboo-stemmed pipe.
[US]D. Maurer ‘Junker Lingo’ in AS VIII:2 27: Opium is referred to specifically as O., mud, or hop, and the addict is known as a hophead, pipe-smoker, or cookie.

In phrases

pipe story (n.)

(US) a fantasy.

[US]F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 15: ‘[D]at guy round here [...] dat tells dem pipe-stories ’bout onct bein’ de champeen wrassler down east?
pipe talk (n.)

(US) fantasizing; nonsense.

[US]C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 257: I figured this to be pipe talk at first, but [...] I could see that this man was too solid to be a smoker of seconds.
[US]E.W. Townsend Sure 30: [W]hen Duchess says dat he’ll be a President, or Alderman, it don’t sound so much like a pipe talk as you’d tink.
hit the pipe (v.) (also hit the stem)(US drugs)

1. to smoke opium; thus pipe-hitter n., an opium smoker [note Burnett, Little Caesar (1929): ‘Hit the pipe, drinking’; presumably an authorial error].

[US]A. Trumble Heathen Chinee 30: In the theatrical profession, ‘hitting the pipe’ is a specially favorite form of dissipation.
[US] ‘Life in a New York Opium Den’ in T. Byrnes Professional Criminals of America 🌐 He then unbosomed his reasons for leaving. He was going to ‘hit the pipe.’ I demanded he should take me with him.
[US]L.A. Times 2 May n.p.: [headline] ‘Dope’ Fiends. Police Officers Raid A Notorious Den. A Sallow-faced Pipe-hitter and a Nude Female Captured.
[US]Popular Science Monthly 33 Sept. 663–67: Not only are there more Chinese ‘joints’ [...] than there were a year ago, but the number of individuals who ‘hit the pipe’ at home and in their offices is growing very fast.
[US]C.W. Gardner Doctor and the Devil 36: Don’t you want to hit a pipe? [Ibid.] 40: I got to smoking opium. Then I got to be a ‘pipe-hitter’ as they call slaves of the opium drug.
[UK]Mirror of Life 27 Jan. 7/4: [T]he Chinese were the first to introduce the habit of ‘Hitting the Pipe,’ as it is called, into the States.
[US]H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 196: Now this guy’ll take a shot [...] or he’ll hit the stem.
[US]‘O. Henry’ ‘The Caliph, Cupid and the Clock’ in Four Million (1915) 196: It’s Dopy Mike [...] He hits the pipe every night.
[US]E. O’Neill The Web in Ten ‘Lost’ Plays (1995) 55: Yuh’re half drunk now. And yuh been hittin’ the pipe too; I kin tell by the way your eyes look.
[US]F. Packard White Moll 175: Anyway, I’m no pipe-hitter.
[US]O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 15 July [synd. col.] If he is not seen for a few weeks, he is in Chinatown ‘hitting the pipe.’.
[Ire]Eve. Herald (Dublin) 9 Dec. 4/6: ‘Hitting the pipe’ means that a person has taken to opium.
[US]C.W. Willemse Cop Remembers 316: When we got to her she was hitting the pipe, which is police parlance for smoking opium.
Sun. World-Herald Mag. (Omaha, NE) 3 Apr. 2/1: Opium smokers are considered at a low level [...] but a guy who profits when he hits the pipe is the plumber [DA].
[US]A. King Mine Enemy Grows Older (1959) 45: He’s an old hophead [...] He used to hit the pipe.

2. to smoke cannabis.

[US]E. Hunter ‘See Him Die’ in Jungle Kids (1967) 99: I figured maybe he had hit the pipe after all.

3. (also crack the pipe) to smoke crack cocaine.

[US]R. Shell Iced 200: I hadn’t started crackin’ the pipe yet.
[US]N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 367: Gred is fucked up on that shit. He hittin’ that pipe almost every day.
[US](con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 51: ‘Comin’ home to seein’ my mom do whatever, hit the pipe’.
[US]Mad mag. Nov. 59: My sister was hitting the pipe when she was pregnant.
on the pipe (drugs)

1. using opium on a regular basis.

[US]J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 235: I saw an opium smoker doubled up with the cramps and pleading for hop, and learned he had been ‘on the pipe’ only three months.
[US]C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 324: Pipe, on the, Addicted to opium.

2. using crack cocaine on a regular basis.

[US]T.R. Houser Central Sl. 39: on the pipe To be hooked on cocaine.
[US](con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 45: Everybody knew he was on the pipe. It was killing him.
[US]Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 26: Those on the pipe are so coke-crazed, so hungry for that ready rock that even hardcore dope fiends are apt to show disgust.
[US]E. Beetner ‘Zed’s Dead, Baby’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] And that wind blows me to his drug buddies. If anyone knows where Zed’s gone [...] it’s his pals on the pipe.

In terms relating to the penis

In compounds

In phrases

blow someone’s pipe (v.) (also blow the pipe) [blow v.2 (1c)]

(US) to fellate; thus pipe-blower n., a homosexual.

(ref. to 1894) T. Dreiser Newspaper Days (2000) 590: They go down on you – blow the pipe – play the flute. Aren’t you on?
[US] Transcript Foster Inquiry in L.R. Murphy Perverts by Official Order (1989) 27: He was seeking ‘a piece of tale’ [sic] provoked Brunelle’s suggestion that he get together with one of the ‘pipe blowers’.
clamp the pipe (v.)

to masturbate.

‘xpi3’ ‘Male & Female Masturbation Terms’ at Spankmag.com 22 Oct. 🌐 Clamping the pipe.
clean one’s pipes (v.)

(US) to release sexual tension, either through intercourse or masturbation.

BSNN.net 🌐 Now, as I was saying … if the Brothers hafta get horny and clean their pipes, tell’em its Okay to ‘beat the Bishop,’ hump a sheep, or get a blowjob from a nun. That don’t break no vow of celibacy.
[US]J. Lansdale Leather Maiden 81: ‘You still ballin’ for money?’ [...] ‘You lookin’ to clean your pipes?’.
clean someone’s pipe (v.) (also clean somone’s pipes, clean the pipe)

(US) to perform oral sex on a man.

[US]H. Max Gay (S)language.
[US]Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 63: Clean the Pipe The act of oral sex.
[US](con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 33: He’d probably throw her an extra grand or two she cleaned his pipes.
[Scot]I. Welsh Decent Ride 48: Perr wee Jonty thinks ah’m cleanin offices. Cleanin out pipes mair like!
get one’s pipes cleaned (v.)

to gain sexual release.

[US]M. Karp Rabbit Factory (2007) 113: Sometimes a guy needs his pipes cleaned.
[US](con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 40: Vento insisted on stopping to see one of his girlfriends to get his pipes cleaned.
[Scot]I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 100: You fel as if you are ha to get your passport stamped rather than your pipes cleaned.
lay (some) pipe (v.)

(US) to have sexual intercourse, whether vaginal or anal.

[US] in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 367–8: If I were a maiden fair, / Fairer than all the others, / I would marry a plumber / As quick as one of the others. / We’d fix a pipe here. / We’d fix a pipe there. / We’d fix a pipe together, / But wouldn’t we have a helluva time / Laying pipe together.
[US]E. Liebow Tally’s Corner 140: [f.n.] [W]hen the subject is sex, and as the talk narrows down to one’s own person or sex partner, the language becomes less direct and descriptive phrases such as ‘I really laid some pipe last night’ tend to replace the more specific [...] labels for intercourse.
[US]B. Malamud Tenants (1972) 74: She has a whole lot of nature going for her and I wouldn’t mind laying some pipe in her pants.
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 152: Yes, I’m d’ plumber and I’m here today to lay some pipe!
[US]‘The Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 198: His body was drenched with sweat. He was stroking with the craftsmanship of a professional cocksman. He was laying heavy pipe to a sister who had her legs spread wide eagle.
[US]UGK ‘Like That’ 🎵 Nigga knife, he ain’t layin no pipe.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

pipe-layer (n.)

see separate entry.

pipestem (n.)

(US) an arm.

[US]J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 286: I can see myself becomin’ a farmer an’ plowin’ with a pair of pipe-stems like these.

In phrases

get up someone’s pipe (v.) [brown pipe under brown adj.2 or the idea of fig. close pursuit in a car, i.e. up someone’s exhaust pipe]

to annoy, to infuriate, to provoke.

[UK]Guardian Sport 31 July 16: Notice how Athers was able to get right up Donald’s pipe [...] outstaring him and generally provoking Mr 98 mph.
on the pipe

(US prison) using the waterpipes to communicate between cells.

[US]Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 56: On the Pipealso Talking on the Pipe In a cellhouse there is little opportunity for prisoners to conduct private conversations from one cell to another. ‘Talking on the pipe’ is a procedure inmates use enabling them to do this.
put someone’s pipe out (v.)

1. to ruin someone’s plans.

[UK]‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 308: Here was a choker [...] an absolute freezer of all kindly or loyal feeling! which [...] absolutely put my pipe out.
Guards 101: [He] whispered something [...] about serving: him out if he set up any of his French airs; which, doubtless, if carried into practice, would have put Monsieur’s pipe out.
[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 190: Pipe ‘to put one’s pipe out,’ to traverse his plans, ‘take a rise’ out of him.
[UK]Sl. Dict.

2. to shock, to disgust.

[UK]‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 285: The too common [practice] of keel-hauling, it shocked the whole fleet, and completely put my pipe out.
run some water through one’s pipe (v.)

(US) of a man, to urinate.

[US](con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 242: I gotta run some water through my pipe.
take the pipe (v.) [ety. unknown]

1. (US) to fail to act or achieve under pressure, esp. in sports; thus to be punished.

[US]Current Sl. (1967) I:4 5/2: Take pipe, v. To receive the just punishment for a misdeed.
[US]Baker et al. CUSS 171: Pipe, take the Do poorly on an exam.
[US]Current Sl. IV:1.
[US]S. King It (1987) 148: Unless you’re willing to take the pipe or eat the gun or take a long walk off a short dock, you can’t say no to some things.

2. see take the gas route under gas n.1

In exclamations

put that in your pipe (and smoke it)! (also )

an excl. meaning deal with that, whether you like it or not; ad hoc vars. exist.

[UK]R.B. Peake Americans Abroad I i: ‘No tobacco allowed in England.’ There – (shuts book.) put that in your pipe and smoke it. There’s another slap at ’em!
[UK]R. Barham ‘Lay of St. Odile’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1840) 256: So put that in your pipe, my Lord Otto, and smoke it!
[UK]Thackeray Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche in Works III (1898) 410: Put that in your Ladyship’s pipe and smoke it.
[US]T. Haliburton Sam Slick’s Wise Saws II 166: These are nateral truths, Mr. Bluenose, put them into your pipe and smoke them.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 23 Sept. 3/1: Mr Wearin considerately recommended him to ‘put it in his own pipe and smoke it’.
[UK]C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend III 76: Put that in your pipe.
P. Asbjornsen East of the Sun and West of the Moon (1914) 71: That was one for you, Peter Sandaker, put that in your pipe and smoke it!
[UK]Sl. Dict. 255: Put that in your pipe and smoke it said of a blow or repartee, and equivalent to take that and think over it, or digest it, or let it be a warning to you.
[US]E. Nye Forty Liars (1888) 184: Now, put that in your pipe and smoke it.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Aug. 20/1: Aisy to talk of yer civil-i-sayshun, sirs; / Aisy to talk of yer knowledge as ripe – / Ireland was Ireland, and we were a nayshun, sirs, / Hundreds of years before iver Creayshun, sirs, / Was thought of or dreamt of. Put that in your pipe!
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 23 Sept. 1/4: I’ve been to Henry Five, ole man [...] so put that in your pipe and smoak it.
[US]C. M’Govern Sarjint Larry an’ Frinds 132: Dere’s wan good thing [...] dat youse can roll up into yer cigarette and smoke it.
[UK]Marvel 27 Oct. 391: Locked out, that’s it! Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
[UK]C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 82: They can just put this in their pipes and smoke it.
[US]Sara Martin ‘Squabbling Blues’ 🎵 Just for that, just for that, just listen here what I’ve got to tell you; / Smoke this in your pipe!
[US]C. McKay Banjo 306: Put it in you’ flute and blow it.
[UK]Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 33: So put that in your twelve-inch cigarette-holder and smoke it.
[UK]G. Greene Gun for Sale (1973) 22: Write it down, write it down, old boy [...] and then smoke it.
[UK]A. Christie Murder in the Mews (1954) 44: Now then, put that in your pipe and smoke it.
[US]S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 225: So you can just put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mister Educated Nigger.
[Aus]D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 81: Mr. Mucking Millionaire Noble could put that in his pipe and smoke it!
[US]Laurents & Sondheim West Side Story I v: I like the island Manhattan – Smoke on your pipe and put that in!
[UK]J.R. Ackerley We Think The World Of You (1971) 24: And put that in your pipe and smoke it, I thought as I set the receiver down.
[Ire]C. Brown Down All the Days 213: Bejasus, Genocky, the truth he has spoke it, so put that in your bloody pipe and smoke it.
[US]‘Troy Conway’ Cunning Linguist (1973) 90: ‘Fair enough. But put this in your pipe and smoke it. I will make my intentions clear’.
[Ire]H. Leonard Time Was (1981) Act I: Put that in your saucepan and simmer it!
[Ire]E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 102: He had two famous brands of pipe tobacco, High Toast and Irish Blackguard [...] Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
[UK]Observer 16 Jan. 31: Put that in your spliff and smoke it.
[US]D. Sedaris When You Are Engulfed in Flames (2009) 198: OK Lumpy, you just lost yourself a tip. [...] It could have hapened here [...] so put that in your pipe and smoke it.