Definition

Noun: 1. A device for smoking tobacco, consisting of a long flexible tube attached to a container of water through which smoke is drawn and cooled before inhalation. This device is traditionally associated with Middle Eastern and Asian cultures. It is also commonly known by other names, such as "hookah" or "narghile."

Usage

The term "water pipe" is a descriptive, functional name for the object. It is used in both general and more formal contexts to describe the apparatus. * The café offered traditional beverages and the use of a water pipe. * The museum displayed an ornate 19th-century water pipe from Iran.

Advanced Usage

• Cultural Context: While "water pipe" is a direct description, the specific cultural terms "hookah" or "shisha" (which often refers to the flavored tobacco used) are frequently used in social settings.
  • They spent the evening talking and sharing a hookah (water pipe).

Variants and Related Words

• Hookah (n): The most common synonym for "water pipe," directly borrowed from Arabic and Urdu.
• Narghile / Nargile (n): Another term for a water pipe, common in Turkey and surrounding regions.
• Shisha (n): Often used to refer to the flavored tobacco mixture smoked in a water pipe, but can also refer to the pipe itself in some regions.

Synonyms

• Hookah
• Narghile
• Hubble-bubble (archaic)

Related Phrases

• To smoke a water pipe / hookah: The standard verb collocation for using the device.
  • It is common to smoke a water pipe in many tea houses across the region.

Noun

1. an oriental tobacco pipe with a long flexible tube connected to a container where the smoke is cooled by passing through water
   • a bipolar world with the hookah and Turkish coffee versus hamburgers and Coca Cola