gossip spread by spoken communication
"the news of their affair was spread by word of mouth"
A conduit made of pipes used to convey water, gas or petroleum etc.
"The maintenance crew climbed over the rusted oil pipeline running across the desert floor to fix a leak."
In plain English: A pipeline is a system for moving something from one place to another, like oil through underground tubes or data through computer programs.
"The construction company is building a new oil pipeline to transport fuel across the region."
Usage: Use "pipeline" as a noun to describe a physical system of pipes that transports liquids or gases, such as oil or natural gas, from one location to another. In everyday conversation, it can also refer metaphorically to a continuous series of steps in a process leading to a final result.
To design (a microchip etc.) so that processing takes place in efficient stages, the output of each stage being fed as input to the next.
"The engineers implemented a pipeline architecture for the new processor to ensure data moved through calculation stages without bottlenecks."
In plain English: To pipeline something means to move it along a series of steps until it is finished.
"The company plans to pipeline new data directly from their servers to the cloud."
Usage: Do not use "pipeline" as a verb to mean designing a microchip; instead, reserve it for describing how you are moving people or tasks through a series of steps toward completion. For example, say the company is currently pipeline-ing new hires rather than trying to design their onboarding process in efficient stages.
The word pipeline is a straightforward combination of the words pipe and line. It was first used to describe an actual system of pipes connected in a row before taking on its modern figurative meanings.