pipe down, (to)

pipe down

To become quiet and calm; to stop being loud or boisterous. Often said as a command. OK, class, pipe down! Let's begin our lesson, shall we? We piped down when we realized he was trying to tell us something important.

See also: down, pipe

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

pipe down, (to)

(To) be quiet. This term comes from the navy, where the boatswain’s signal for “All hands turn in” was sometimes made on a whistle or pipe. By 1900 Dialect Notes included a definition (“to stop talking”). Laurence Stallings and Maxwell Anderson used both forms, “Pipe down!” and “to pipe down,” in their play What Price Glory? (1926).

See also: pipe

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer