HORNPIPE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hornpipe mean? 

• HORNPIPE (noun)
  The noun HORNPIPE has 3 senses:

1. a British solo dance performed by sailors

2. music for dancing the hornpipe

3. an ancient (now obsolete) single-reed woodwind; usually made of bone

  Familiarity information: HORNPIPE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HORNPIPE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A British solo dance performed by sailors

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("hornpipe" is a kind of...):

folk dance; folk dancing (a style of dancing that originated among ordinary people (not in the royal courts))

Domain region:

Britain; Great Britain; U.K.; UK; United Kingdom; United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; 'Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Music for dancing the hornpipe

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("hornpipe" is a kind of...):

dance music (music to dance to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An ancient (now obsolete) single-reed woodwind; usually made of bone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

hornpipe; pibgorn; stockhorn

Hypernyms ("hornpipe" is a kind of...):

single-reed instrument; single-reed woodwind (a beating-reed instrument with a single reed (as a clarinet or saxophone))

Domain usage:

archaicism; archaism (the use of an archaic expression)

 Context examples 

Ah, it's a fine dance—I'm with you there—and looks mighty like a hornpipe in a rope's end at Execution Dock by London town, it does.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Dance a hornpipe, cut in Fred, as Jo paused for breath, and, as they danced, the rubbishy old castle turned to a man-of-war in full sail.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

If we are to act, let it be in a theatre completely fitted up with pit, boxes, and gallery, and let us have a play entire from beginning to end; so as it be a German play, no matter what, with a good tricking, shifting afterpiece, and a figure-dance, and a hornpipe, and a song between the acts.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)