pipe up

present singular third person pipes up · participle present piping up · participle past piped up · past piped up

1. intransitiveTo speak up, especially in a robust, assertive manner; to say something loudly and suddenly.

   As we rolled into our fourth week, I found myself piping up with some of my own stories.

   2008 October, Davy Rothbart, “How I caught up with dad”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 8, →ISSN, page 112

   2 more examples

   "You seem to have a lot to say," remarked Silver, spitting far into the air. "Pipe up and let me hear it, or lay to."

   1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

   Once I asked a seventeen-year-old singer something that wasn't on the list, which caused her manager to pipe up: "That wasn't what we agreed on. She doesn't have to answer that."

   1994, Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance

2. intransitiveTo begin singing or playing musical notes on a pipe or similar wind instrument.

   [T]he frogs in a neighboring marsh began to pipe up for the evening concert.

   1871, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 12, in Little Men: […], Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC

   1 more example

   But presently the gray dawn stole over the world, the birds piped up, then the sun rose and poured light and comfort all around.

   1907, Mark Twain, chapter 16, in Chapters from My Autobiography

3. intransitiveusuallyTo begin to blow more vigorously.

   Once, for ten minutes, the sun shone at midday, and ten minutes afterward a new gale was piping up.

   1911, Jack London, “Make Westing”, in When God Laughs and Other Stories

4. raretransitiveTo call, awaken, or summon, as with a musical instrument.

   1 more example

   Yet beyond turning my blood cold for a moment, it gave me little trouble, for evil tales have hung about the church; and though I did not set much store by the old yarns of Blackbeard piping up his crew, yet I thought strange things might well go on among the graves at night. And so I never budged, nor stirred hand or foot to save a fellow-creature in his agony.

   [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC