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Glite Dictionary
🗣️ To speak suddenly 🎶 To start singing
to pipe up

to pipe up

6 5.9
To start speaking suddenly, often loudly or in a high voice
  • phrasal verb
  • /paɪp ʌp/
  • Informal
translation icon : interrumpir
  • In the middle of the meeting, she suddenly piped up with a fantastic idea.
  • piped up: "Yeah"
  • piped up to say
  • little Judy pipes up

And Julia pipes up and goes, Daisy Jones.

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Examples

  • And then Reuben here pipes up and says, "Why not get the President?"

    Welcome to Mooseport (2004)

  • Then Katherine piped up: "If there was anyone we should have hated, it was him."

    Fiction book (1991)

  • "Just as the music stopped, I piped up, "I hate her."

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Does anyone else want to pipe up in defense of this hysteria?

    A Feast of Man (2016)

  • But I managed, piping up, "Alice, you got to get up now."

    Fiction book (1995)

  • One of the Scouts piped up behind her, "Look at that on a bike."

    Fiction book (1994)

  • "Did Daddy go to work already?" Johnny pipes up sleepily.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • "And then we got in the boat and sailed over Philadelphia," piped up a little boy.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • But then Tony, one of the more excitable children, suddenly piped up, "Do you know what Dennis said?"

    Fiction book (1994)

  • "And," Jake piped up, "the miracle of the Jewish fighters' victory over the Greek army."

    Fiction book (2001)

Synonyms

to exclaim
vsto pipe up
81 3.4

Say something suddenly and loudly because you feel surprised or excited

begins to make a sudden loud sound that often has a shrill tone
to pipe
vsto pipe up
47 7.0

To make a high thin sound like a small bird or child

begins to speak suddenly and loudly often with a shrill sound
to speak up
vsto pipe up
43 2.0

Talk more loudly so people can hear you

begins to make a sudden loud sound rather than raising volume to be heard
to burst out
vsto pipe up
9 3.3

Suddenly say something or make a loud sound

begins to speak suddenly often as a sharp loud noise rather than emotional release

Antonyms

to be quiet
231 1.0

To stop making noise or talking

How Loud

to shout
644 1.0
to pipe up
  • Informal
6 5.9
to speak up
43 2.0
to murmur
11 4.2
to whisper
586 1.0

Surface Forms

pipe up infinitive
piped up past
piped up past participle
piping up present participle
pipes up third person singular

Morphology

pipe + up

The verb 'pipe' (to utter a thin, high-pitched sound) combined with the particle 'up' (which commonly signals onset or increase) yields a meaning of beginning to make a sound, so the basic sense is at least partly inferable from the parts. However, the specific phrasal-verb nuance — especially the sudden/unexpected flavour and the idiomatic usage for starting to speak or play — is not fully predictable for a B1 learner, so full understanding without exposure is not guaranteed.

Etymology

The phrasal verb pipe up may come from the image of a small pipe (a whistle) suddenly making a high sound up; when someone quickly speaks in a sharp or loud voice they are like that sudden pipe, so pipe up means 'to begin to speak'.