pipeline

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: pipe=line

CIDE DICTIONARY

pipeline,  

•  A line of pipe with pumping machinery and apparatus for conveying liquids, gases, or finely divided solids, such as petroleum or natural gas, between distant points.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
•  fig. an information channel direct from the source.  [PJC]
•  the set of stages and processes from the invention or design of a product to its ultimate use, production, or commercial sale. Used commonly in the phrase in the pipeline, i. e. still in preparation or under development.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

pipeline, n.
1 a long, usu. underground, pipe for conveying esp. oil.
2 a channel supplying goods, information, etc.

Idiom

in the pipeline awaiting completion or processing.

THESAURUS

pipeline

adjutage, bush telegraph, catheter, channel, coming, conduit, confidential information, connection, contact, conveyor, cooking, drainpipe, duct, efflux tube, fire hose, flue pipe, flume, funnel, garden hose, gas pipe, grapevine, grapevine telegraph, hose, hosepipe, imminent, in the offing, in the works, inside dope, inside information, insider, line, main, nipple, on the way, organ pipe, origin, passage, pipe, pipette, piping, put through channels, ready, reed, reed pipe, siamese, siamese connection, siphon, snorkel, soil pipe, source, standpipe, steam pipe, stem, straw, supplier, tap, the lowdown, tube, tubing, tubulation, tubule, tubulet, tubulure, under way, waste pipe, water pipe, wellspring

ROGET THESAURUS

pipeline

Conduit

N conduit, channel, duct, watercourse, race, head race, tail race, abito, aboideau, aboiteau, bito, acequia, acequiador, acequiamadre, arroyo, adit, aqueduct, canal, trough, gutter, pantile, flume, ingate, runner, lock-weir, tedge, vena, dike, main, gully, moat, ditch, drain, sewer, culvert, cloaca, sough, kennel, siphon, piscina, pipe, funnel, tunnel, water pipe, waste pipe, emunctory, gully hole, artery, aorta, pore, spout, scupper, adjutage, ajutage, hose, gargoyle, gurgoyle, penstock, weir, flood gate, water gate, sluice, lock, valve, rose, waterworks, pipeline, vascular.