A rustic musical instrument made of a stalk of corn.
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. 42. I beheld mony hirdis blauuand ther buc hornis and ther corne pipis. Ibid., vi. 65. The thrid playit on ane trump, the feyrd on ane corne pipe.
a. 1740. Tickell, Kensington Garden, 319, in Wks. (1796?), 50 (J.).
Now the shrill cornpipes, echoing loud to arms, | |
To rank and file reduce the straggling swarms. |
fig. 1828. Carlyle, Goethes Helena, Misc. I. 132. And so on, through all the variations of the critical corn-pipe.