stovepipe

Meanings

Noun

• Sheet-metal tubing used as a chimney for a stove or furnace.
• A channel for information which is compartmentalized in such a manner that some parties who might be interested in its use or be able to utilize it are restricted from accessing it.
• A stovepipe hat.
• A type of malfunction affecting breechloading firearms, where a spent cartridge casing fails to eject completely, instead becoming stuck in the firearm's ejection port, usually oriented vertically or nearly so.

Verb

• To collect or store (information) in a compartmentalized manner, so that some parties who might be interested in its use or be able to utilize it are restricted from accessing it.
• Of a cartridge case, to become wedged vertically in the ejection port of a breechloading firearm, rather than ejecting completely from the weapon.

Origin

• stove + pipe. The firearms sense is due to the trapped cartridge case resembling a stovepipe of the stove sense.