What is "tobacco pipe"

Tobacco \To*bac"co\, n. [Sp. tabaco, fr. the Indian tabaco the tube or pipe in which the Indians or Caribbees smoked this plant. Some derive the word from Tabaco, a province of Yucatan, where it was said to be first found by the Spaniards; others from the island of Tobago, one of the Caribbees. But these derivations are very doubtful.]

1. (Bot.) An American plant ( Nicotiana Tabacum) of the Nightshade family, much used for smoking and chewing, and as snuff. As a medicine, it is narcotic, emetic, and cathartic. Tobacco has a strong, peculiar smell, and an acrid taste.

   Note: The name is extended to other species of the genus, and to some unrelated plants, as Indian tobacco ( Nicotiana rustica, and also Lobelia inflata), mountain tobacco ( Arnica montana), and Shiraz tobacco ( Nicotiana Persica).

2. The leaves of the plant prepared for smoking, chewing, etc., by being dried, cured, and manufactured in various ways. Tobacco box (Zo["o]l.), the common American skate. Tobacco camphor. (Chem.) See Nicotianine. Tobacco man, a tobacconist. [R.] Tobacco pipe.

   1. A pipe used for smoking, made of baked clay, wood, or other material.

   2. (Bot.) Same as Indian pipe, under Indian.

      Tobacco-pipe clay (Min.), a species of clay used in making tobacco pipes; -- called also cimolite.

      Tobacco-pipe fish. (Zo["o]l.) See Pipemouth.

      Tobacco stopper, a small plug for pressing down the tobacco in a pipe as it is smoked.

      Tobacco worm (Zo["o]l.), the larva of a large hawk moth ( Sphinx Carolina syn. Phlegethontius Carolina). It is dark green, with seven oblique white stripes bordered above with dark brown on each side of the body. It feeds upon the leaves of tobacco and tomato plants, and is often very injurious to the tobacco crop. See Illust. of Hawk moth.

n. A small, hand-held device consisting in its simplest form of a bowl and stem; used for inhaling the smoke of burning tobacco.

n. a tube with a small bowl at one end; used for smoking tobacco [syn: pipe]

A tobacco pipe, often called simply a pipe, is a device specifically made to smoke tobacco. It comprises a chamber (the bowl) for the tobacco from which a thin hollow stem (shank) emerges, ending in a mouthpiece (the bit). Pipes can range from very simple machine-made briar models to highly prized hand-made artisanal implements made by renowned pipemakers, which are often very expensive collector's items. Pipe smoking is the oldest known traditional form of tobacco smoking.