Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small, high-pitched, transverse flute used primarily to accompany drums in a military or marching band.
  • intransitive verb To play a fife.
  • intransitive verb To perform (a piece or tune) on or as if on a fife.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A musical instrument of the flute class, usually having a compass of about two octaves upward from the second D above the middle C; a piccolo, or a flute of still higher pitch: much used in military music, particularly with drums.
  • noun In organ-building, a piccolo stop.
  • To play the fife, or to execute on a fife: as, to fife in a band; to fife a tune.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mus.) A small shrill pipe, resembling the piccolo flute, used chiefly to accompany the drum in military music.
  • noun (Mil.) a noncommissioned officer who superintends the fifers of a regiment.
  • noun (Naut.) A railing around the break of a poop deck.
  • intransitive verb To play on a fife.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small shrill pipe, resembling the piccolo flute, used chiefly to accompany the drum in military music

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a small high-pitched flute similar to a piccolo; has a shrill tone and is used chiefly to accompany drums in a marching band

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably German Pfeife, from Middle High German pfīfe, from Old High German pfīffa, from Vulgar Latin *pīpa, from Latin pīpāre, to chirp.]

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Examples

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  • A small shrill-toned instrument of the flute kind, used chiefly to accompany the drum in military music. The fife is a transverse wind instrument with an embouchure hole and six fingerholes.

    "And blasts with whistling fifes new rage inspire." (P. Fletcher, Locusts II, iv, 1627)

    "And the vile squealing of the wry-necked fife..." (W. Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice")

    And the drums are going a rap a tap tap

    And the fifes they loudly play

    Fare you well, Polly my dear

    I must be going away.

    --"The Gentleman Soldier," trad., arr. the Pogues, c. 1985

    February 7, 2007