hornpipe

Meanings

Noun

• A musical instrument consisting of a wooden pipe, with holes at intervals.
• A solo dance commonly associated with seamen, involving kicking of the legs, with the arms mostly crossed.
• A hard-shoe solo dance commonly performed in Irish stepdance, usually danced in 2/4 time.
• Music played to the hornpipe dance

Verb

• To dance the hornpipe.

Origin

• From Middle English hornpipe, hornpype, hornepipe, equivalent to horn + pipe; so called because the bell at the open end was sometimes made of horn.