pipeline

noun

1. A conduit made of pipes used to convey water, gas or petroleum, etc.

   “Meronyms: pipe, piping, pipework”

   “An oil pipeline has been opened from the Caspian Sea.”

2. A channel (either physical or logical) by which information is transmitted sequentially (that is, the first information in is the first information out).

   “3D images are rendered using the graphics pipeline.”

3. (figuratively)A system or process through which something is conducted.

   “A new version of the software is in the pipeline, but has not been rolled out.”

   “April 19 2002, Scott Tobias, AV Club Fightvillehttp://www.avclub.com/articles/fightville,72589/ The gym’s proprietor, “Crazy” Tim Credeur, heads up the Gladiator Academy, which serves as a pipeline for amateur MMA fighters to move up the ranks, though few of them do.”

   “History education has also been considered as a pipeline that connects learners with 'their roots', thereby imbuing in them an awareness of their identity.”

   “A bracing Department of Justice lawsuit filed last month against Meridian, Miss[issippi] […] argues that the city’s juvenile justice system has operated a school to prison pipeline that shoves students out of school and into the criminal justice system […]”

   “Scottish rail suppliers have told the Government that they can only reach their target of employing 500 apprentices if they are given a clear pipeline of work, rather than having to endure the current stop-go programme.”

4. (figuratively)A widely observed pattern of development in personal interests, circumstances, or opinions.

   “Many who grew up in foster homes in the county have fallen victim to the foster-care-to-homelessness pipeline.”

   “I recently had a peer reviewer demand that I refer to the so-called “Fortnite to alt-right pipeline” as though games automatically turn players into right-wing extremists.”

   “Belew’s book offers a comprehensive history of the military-to-extremism pipeline in America since the Vietnam War, arguing that the ‘potent sense of betrayal’ felt by some white military personnel contributed to the rise of an over-trained and over-armed anti-government militia movement with a distinctly violent racist agenda.”

   “But increasingly, the reality TV-to-social-influencer pipeline has dried up. While the majority of contestants on reality TV dating shows like The Bachelor don’t come out meeting their forever love, they previously knew that if they resonated with viewers at home, they would be all but guaranteed hundreds of thousands, or millions of Instagram followers—and a lucrative career as an influencer.”

5. (figuratively)A continuous, contributing source of benefits, talent, or innovation.
6. The inside of a wave that a surfer is riding, when the wave has started closing over it.

verb

1. (transitive)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.
2. (transitive)To convey by a system of pipes.
3. (transitive)To lay a system of pipes through.