hornpipe

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • n hornpipe a British solo dance performed by sailors
    • n hornpipe an ancient (now obsolete) single-reed woodwind; usually made of bone
    • n hornpipe music for dancing the hornpipe
    • ***
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • n Hornpipe (Mus) An instrument of music formerly popular in Wales, consisting of a wooden pipe, with holes at intervals. It was so called because the bell at the open end was sometimes made of horn. "Many a hornpipe he tuned to his Phyllis."
    • ***
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n hornpipe A musical instrument formerly used in England and Wales, perhaps the precursor of the English horn.
    • n hornpipe An English country-dance of varied and hilarious character, usually performed by one person, and very popular among sailors.
    • n hornpipe Music for such a dance or in its style.
    • ***
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • n Hornpipe horn′pīp an old Welsh musical instrument resembling the clarinet: a lively air: a lively English dance, usually by one person, popular amongst sailors.
    • ***

Usage

In literature:

And it don't wear your legs to stumps in talking over a poor fellow's ways as it do to stand up in hornpipes.
"The Bibliotaph" by Leon H. Vincent
Pull lad, pull, and keep me at it, or I zhall be getting up and dancing zailor's hornpipe all over the boat, and without music.
"Nic Revel" by George Manville Fenn
It was followed by a regular sailor's hornpipe.
"Ben Burton" by W. H. G. Kingston
I could dance a hornpipe with any man on board; and as for singing a rollicking sea-song, there were few who could match me.
"Marmaduke Merry" by William H. G. Kingston
He was desired to dance a hornpipe or sing a sea-song.
"Paddy Finn" by W. H. G. Kingston
He intimated also to Jack that he must get up and go through his hornpipe again.
"Salt Water" by W. H. G. Kingston
With his music, and under Jack Windy's instruction, Bill soon learned to dance a hornpipe, so that few could surpass him.
"Sunshine Bill" by W H G Kingston
When, however, one of the stage sailors came on and volunteered to dance a hornpipe, his indignation knew no bounds.
"True Blue" by W.H.G. Kingston
Here a most hilarious hornpipe is interrupted by the distant call of Gulliver's aria, and the rescue is consummated delightfully.
"Contemporary American Composers" by Rupert Hughes
Paul got up and danced a hornpipe on the bench; Bramble kicked the boy nearest to him.
"The Fifth Form at Saint Dominic's" by Talbot Baines Reed
***

In poetry:

Now FREDDY'S operatic PAS -
Now JOHNNY'S hornpipe seems entrapping:
Now FREDDY'S graceful ENTRECHATS -
Now JOHNNY'S skilful "cellar-flapping."
"John and Freddy" by William Schwenck Gilbert
A deft musician does the breeze become
Whenever an Æolian harp it finds:
Hornpipe and hurdygurdy both are dumb
Unto the most musicianly of winds.
"Epigrams" by William Watson
There was an Old Person of Ischia,
Whose conduct grew friskier and friskier;
He dance hornpipes and jigs,
And ate thousands of figs,
That lively Old Person of Ischia.
"Limerick: There was an Old Person of Ischia" by Edward Lear

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