Definition of "piping" []

• A system of pipes, such as those used in plumbing. (noun)
• Music The act of playing on a pipe. (noun)
• Music The music produced by a pipe when played. (noun)
• A shrill, high-pitched sound. (noun)
• A narrow tube of fabric, sometimes enclosing a cord, used for trimming seams and edges, as of slipcovers. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This piping is easily heard by _any_ one not actually deaf, and not the least danger of its being taken for any humming; in fact, it is not to be mistaken for anything else _but piping_, even when you hear it for the first time."
• "Venting a fixture when the drain piping is all under the floor, such as a toilet, sometimes requires that the vent be connected to the horizontal drainpipe, when there is not enough room to stack a tee in the vertical riser pipe to the fixture."
• "Away went the sloop, steadying her bow-lines; the call piping belay, as each sail was trimmed to the officer of the deck's fancy."