pipe cleaner


noun

a short length of twisted flexible wires covered with tufted fabric, used to clean the stem of a smoker's pipe and for various handicrafts.

Origin of pipe cleaner

First recorded in 1865–70

Example sentences from the Web for pipe cleaner

  • The first pipe-cleaner man was shinnying up the power cable.

    Makers |Cory Doctorow
  • A pipe-cleaner man happened upon a shard after a moment and hugged it to his chest, then toddled back into the box with it.

    Makers |Cory Doctorow
  • Improvising tweezers from a pipe-cleaner, he picked this up and looked at it.

    Murder in the Gunroom |Henry Beam Piper

British Dictionary definitions for pipe cleaner

pipe cleaner

noun

a short length of thin wires twisted so as to hold tiny tufts of yarn: used to clean the stem of a tobacco pipe