pipe down

British  

verb

1. informal  (intr, adverb) to stop talking, making noise, etc

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pipe down Idioms  

1. Stop talking, be quiet, as in I wish you children would pipe down. This idiom is also used as an imperative, as in Pipe down! We want to listen to the opera. It comes from the navy, where the signal for all hands to turn in was sometimes sounded on a whistle or pipe. By 1900 it had been transferred to more general use.

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Example Sentences

Leaders cannot just tell their number two to pipe down, because they are voted in by party members.

From BBC

Payton walked over to the boo birds and told them to pipe down and to be respectful around the young quarterback’s family.

From Los Angeles Times

The same rocket that killed the others had brought a heavy pipe down on his own leg, smashing his left knee.

From BBC

Trump piped down and stayed in court, then held a news conference where he deplored the “nasty judge.”

From Seattle Times

The conversation escalated and Storm asked if she was going to go to jail if she didn’t pipe down, arguing that she was doing “what the Lord is telling me to do.”

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• cut off
• gag
• muffle
• mute
• muzzle
• quash
• quell
• squelch
• stifle
• subdue
• suppress