Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A musical
wind instrument having a flexiblebag inflated by a tube or bellows, adouble-reed melody pipe and up to fourdrone pipes. There are several types from different national traditions, each having peculiar characteristics.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The dying ears must have been quick, for John Broom heard nothing; but in a few minutes he heard the bagpipes from the officers 'mess, where they were keeping Hogmenay.
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He told me that in Germany they call bagpipes doodlebags.
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His bagpipes were a pile of jangled bones beside him.
The Queen of Everything Deb Caletti 1999
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The bagpipes are a legacy from the grim testament of war, and the savage breath of other days belches through them yet.
St. Cuthbert's Robert E. Knowles
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The bagpipes are a good thing in their place, but their place is with Dante and his _Inferno_.
St. Cuthbert's Robert E. Knowles
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Ever after he maintained that the call of the bagpipes was the most martial music in the world.
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As vengeance would have it, Meg Partan was the first of whom, with supercilious airs and "clippit" tongue, he requested to know where a certain blind man, who played on an instrument called the bagpipes, lived.
Malcolm George MacDonald 1864
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"You know, you'll have one that's sort of about a serious topic, and you'll follow that up with one about how, you know, stop calling bagpipes a musical instrument," he says.
News 2011
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I'm not totally sure the bagpipes were a great idea, but you have to admit DeWyze's performance last week left people talking.
The Seattle Times 2010
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You mean the ones that play with those out-of-tune vacuum cleaners that are called bagpipes?
bilby commented on the word bagpipes
Donald MacDonald from the Isle of Skye went to study at an English university and was living in the hall of residence with all the other students there. After he had been there a month, his mother came to visit him. "And how do you find the English students, Donald?" she asked. "Mother," he replied, "they're such terrible, noisy people. The one on that side keeps banging his head on the wall and won't stop. The one on the other side screams and screams all night." "Oh Donald! How do you manage to put up with these awful noisy English neighbors?"
"Mother, I do nothing. I just ignore them. I just stay here quietly, playing me bagpipes!"
November 23, 2007
seanahan commented on the word bagpipes
That's a great joke.
November 23, 2007
yarb commented on the word bagpipes
The Bagpipes yt entertains you from morning till night with a repetition of the fame nots are ye dull heavy fellows: ftory tellers that with a perpetuall humming quite tire your patience.
- Peter Reading, Mens Talents in Difcours Shadowed out by Muficall Inftruments, from Fiction, 1979
June 26, 2008
jennarenn commented on the word bagpipes
These are some of my favorite instruments. The fact that they're often played by men in skirts is just gravy.
June 26, 2008
bilby commented on the word bagpipes
I have a Bagpipes list, not quite finished.
June 26, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word bagpipes
Bilby, have you seen this?
January 22, 2009
reesetee commented on the word bagpipes
Wow! *adds dudelsack to list*
January 23, 2009
apsalar commented on the word bagpipes
I can't play the bagpipes.
July 20, 2009